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Vietnam: A Television History (1981-04-09)
About this film
Morton Halperin was an American foreign policy expert who served in the Johnson, Nixon, and Clinton administrations. In 1967 he defended the bombing of North Vietnam in order to prove to its people that the Democratic Republic of Vietnam could not protect them. Under Nixon, Halperin was suspected of leaking the Pentagon Papers and his phones were tapped. He describes his reservations about being asked to draw up an option for escalation of the war. Halperin also discusses options for winding down the war that he hoped would result in the return of American prisoners of war. He reflects on intelligence operations in the US against the anti-war movement, describing it as effective but clearly illegal. He argues that the very existence of the South Vietnamese depended upon the belief by the North Vietnamese that the US would destroy North Vietnam in the event of an invasion of the South.
Directors & creators
WGBH Educational Foundation
Subjects
public broadcasting, AAPB, Morton Halperin, Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon, Lyndon B. Johnson, WGBH, National Security Council, Pentagon Papers, Vietnam War, NSSM-1, North Vietnam, South Vietnam, reconnaissance flights, bombing of North Vietnam, protective reaction strikes, Joint Chiefs of Staff, anti-war movement
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