 president of the United States. I have just been looking over some of the sketches made in Vietnam 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're 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're 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 in their hearts, but they're 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. 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. 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. They have a people building a nation for themselves and building it amid the Holocaust of war. 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 that war the strangest war in which Americans have ever been involved. It is also the capital of a nation in the throes of a social revolution. 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 U.S. 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 a third Marine amphibious force at Da Nang. And spect five Dale Camry with the 25th Infantry Division. These fellows are stationed here and they know the country at least in a 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. 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. The war is never very far away. These hamlets and villages are the real soul of the country. Orphous of the people of South Vietnam live in them and it is here in these dusty trails through the country side these thatched huts and farmland in jungle that the thrust of South Vietnam's great social revolution is directed. Vietnam revolution is a double-edged word. The enemy uses it. It's what they call the aggressive war. They're using against people all over here. That's the 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. 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 paddy 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 ones of the people. They are the objectives of Vietnam social revolution. Trouble is the Viet Cong have told the people that 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 at its promises right now. If they don't the revolution is dead. But we can't wait on it. We've got to get this war one. If we don't there won't be a nation to build. 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. 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 do something about revolution developed a revolutionary answer in the field to these cutthroat terrorists. The myth of Viet Cong invincibility is dead. The ground sea and air team in Vietnam has killed it. America decided a long time ago in principle to take it stand in Vietnam and 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. Fighting men in Vietnam are the inheritors of that decision and now they are its agents. Accolades and war are easy to give but there is a general agreement that never before in its history as 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. We've got to get this war one. If we don't there won't be any nation to build. 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. 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 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 shape. 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. Tomorrow about midnight you'll surround the village of Thanh Phu Khon and completely seal it off. You encounter any VC you'll and 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 Thanh Phu Khon. It's 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 and 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. 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. 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 three years now working in the province of Jaden. My work is 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 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 U.S. 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. Iranian surgical team provides badly needed hospital services in one of the districts. 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 Vung Tau a very special training center. It's for the training of what the Vietnamese call revolutionary development cadets. 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 tactics. You may not believe it to look at me but I'm Captain Jean Savagio United States Army. This is a uniform here at Vung Tau. I'm an advisor here but only that. You see the Vietnamese are running the show and it's an arduous 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. 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 cat 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 into 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 cadre groups who take their revolution the social revolution to the countryside. The program in which these cadre 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 Viet Cong or main force enemy units then regional forces companies of troops employed within a province and popular forces platoons and squads within a district secure the area with their patrols and small-sized operations. Then the cadre 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 a 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 cadre groups. It complicates our problems of identification of course for the Viet Cong wear the same uniform. The cadres work with the people to gain their trust. This is made considerably easier by there being assigned to the districts they grew up in among the people who know them. They're not left entirely on their own military units on the periphery helped 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 cadre teams begin rooting out the VC infrastructure if one exists. At the same time the spade work of the social revolution begins with a full explanation to the people of just what the cadres 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 experiences made them worry. Too often they've watched the VC murder anyone who has cooperated with the government. They have to be persuaded that this won't happen again. It's the job of the cadres 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. 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 cadres 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 U.S. sources but the people have to contribute their labors and energies. As their work progresses the cadres 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 far off 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 cadres 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 or are determined to work for it 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 of writing on these men. We all have. That's right. We all have. One can say with absolute certainty that Vietnam is going to succeed in building the nation at once 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's 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 brave ally. 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 a 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.