Speaker 1: My name is Trim and this is Saigon, the story
Speaker 1: of my family and of the country that shaped us.
Speaker 2: The United States will not stand by and allow any power.
Speaker 3: However, great ape over another time.
Speaker 4: Oren't no wild.
Speaker 5: Natural expagon that brought only come new land.
Speaker 6: A bad dy babbled.
Speaker 2: That can be no peace without justice, and that can be.
Speaker 7: No justice without peace.
Speaker 1: Chapter seven. Having recovered from the initial surprise of the
Speaker 1: Viet Cong's huge tet offensive, the US soon recaptured the
Speaker 1: cities that had been taken. Now, the more difficult task
Speaker 1: of clearing the communists out of the countryside began. It
Speaker 1: was March nineteen sixty eight.
Speaker 4: Sir, what they're ready for you now? Colonel Henderson, good,
Speaker 4: you ready? Captain Sherman, Yes, sir, I'm ready.
Speaker 7: All right.
Speaker 8: Let's go.
Speaker 9: Ten hot, sir, wage.
Speaker 8: Tomorrow this payback time.
Speaker 10: Now, the Viet COM's forty eighth Battalion has dispersed among
Speaker 10: the six hamlets of the Lee Fong area Bio seven hundred,
Speaker 10: and all the civilians the markets are working the fields.
Speaker 10: That means any man left in the villages will be
Speaker 10: the sea. Now we have been assigned hamlets one to five.
Speaker 9: We will go in there.
Speaker 8: Aggressively close with the enemy and wipe.
Speaker 9: Him out for good.
Speaker 11: And that dawn when you climb into the slicks, I
Speaker 11: don't want you thinking about your sweetheart back home, or
Speaker 11: your mama and Papa and the smell of apple pie
Speaker 11: and ice cream.
Speaker 12: You will be the wrath of God ranging through the
Speaker 12: gates of hell with one thought and one thought only.
Speaker 12: All your dead and wounded buddies. You are their retribution.
Speaker 12: You will rain fire on these bastards. Am I right,
Speaker 12: Captain German?
Speaker 13: Uh?
Speaker 14: Yes, sir, absolutely, you will be the hand of justice
Speaker 14: across the hole of the quag not province.
Speaker 15: Are you ready?
Speaker 8: Carry on?
Speaker 4: Get some rest, guys. I'll see you back here at
Speaker 4: six hundred hours, uh, Captain German. Yeah, I just thought
Speaker 4: you ought to know.
Speaker 16: Ryan sick Captain, but he won't see them o because
Speaker 16: he thinks he'll have to sit out the mission.
Speaker 4: What's sort of sick his shoulder, Captain, it's got infected.
Speaker 14: Can he shoot?
Speaker 4: No, Sir, I'll tell him. I don't send sick men
Speaker 4: into battle just to prove some crazy notion of toughness.
Speaker 4: You can either see the mo o or come and
Speaker 4: see me and let me make the call. Yes, captain. Now,
Speaker 4: thank you, Corporal. Misplaced bravery isn't gonna win us this war.
Speaker 4: We got to keep our heads understood, Captain, Okay, Corporal,
Speaker 4: see you in the morning, sir, Thank you, Sir, cat
Speaker 4: and Sherman. Colonel Henderson, Yes, sir, is there a problem.
Speaker 8: You're covering hamlets one and two?
Speaker 4: Yes, correct, sir. See companies covering three and four? Be
Speaker 4: Company five and six.
Speaker 8: We'll make damn sure they do the job properly, Sherman.
Speaker 8: The entire area has to become totally unusable for the vicom.
Speaker 8: I'm talking. Burn houses, kill livestock, destroy food stores, and
Speaker 8: poison all the whales. That understood, understood, Yes, Colonel Good
Speaker 8: at east, Captain, where's Medina?
Speaker 12: Two?
Speaker 7: Ten?
Speaker 9: S downs?
Speaker 8: Sir, very good, and remember Captain, the hand of God retribution.
Speaker 1: That night, Captain Gary Sherman sat down and wrote a
Speaker 1: letter for his father, Joseph Sherman. It was a ritual
Speaker 1: he performed before every battle. It was a superstition he'd
Speaker 1: come to believe in. As long as he prepared for
Speaker 1: the worst, it wouldn't happen.
Speaker 4: Dear Dad. Sorry, we couldn't catch up last month. By
Speaker 4: the time you got back to Saigon. We'd been posted
Speaker 4: up here. We're heading out on a clean up mission tomorrow.
Speaker 4: We have to flush out any remaining Viet Cong, which
Speaker 4: is always hard when they make themselves look like innocent villagers.
Speaker 15: Got it.
Speaker 4: I keep thinking about that girl too, the VC girl
Speaker 4: who came out of the ground. I wake up every
Speaker 4: night and see her face, see her look at me
Speaker 4: and then lower her gun. I should have died that.
Speaker 10: Day, but I didn't.
Speaker 4: And tomorrow, when we go on our mission, I keep
Speaker 4: thinking she'll be out there, and she's my half sister.
Speaker 4: It makes me wonder why we're here, what are we
Speaker 4: even doing here? We leave at dawn, so I better
Speaker 4: get some sleep. Just wanted to write this first, like always,
Speaker 4: you know, in case, I Love your Dad, look after yourself,
Speaker 4: Love Gary, Fight for.
Speaker 9: One Alpha perchingham Let's Project.
Speaker 2: Christians copy Fay for one, Alca All clear.
Speaker 9: Roger, Okay, here we go.
Speaker 2: He's gonna hover a couple of feet off Brown, stay low,
Speaker 2: letch your ankles right clear.
Speaker 9: And come go on.
Speaker 2: Alpha Company spread out, staying to be Parker left, Blake, Thompson,
Speaker 2: Hicks right side.
Speaker 9: Right, move out forward stay Frosty three sixty.
Speaker 4: Thompson, Captain, see anything, nothing yet, and we're gonna get
Speaker 4: us a whole rack of yellow ass today, though, aren't we?
Speaker 9: Hixy good goddamn tip?
Speaker 4: Okay, careful, guys, they would have heard the choppers. It
Speaker 4: could be hiding anywhere.
Speaker 9: Gonna turn them all this strawberry jelly wherever they are,
Speaker 9: Captain Goodwin, Captain take point. It's move hold it? What
Speaker 9: play in mind? Okay, guys, keep moving and watch where
Speaker 9: you're stepping.
Speaker 10: Who was it?
Speaker 9: C Company? By leifunk pork? They found themselves from VC Parker.
Speaker 9: What have we got, leefunk one? See anything? Some kids
Speaker 9: playing on the path, an old woman cooking breakfast?
Speaker 6: Just kids and women.
Speaker 9: Weren't they men to be at the market?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 9: Or on the fields? That's what we thought. Where the
Speaker 9: hell of the VC?
Speaker 4: Maybe they've gone.
Speaker 3: We're in the huts.
Speaker 9: Get down, fire, it's me. Who are you? Women? Rob
Speaker 9: A company?
Speaker 15: Captain Wakowski says, leaf on three's empty, so you can
Speaker 15: swing north and won't have to worry about your ear.
Speaker 9: Hold your ground there, right, thanks?
Speaker 4: Women?
Speaker 9: And what's happening at four? That's Medina and C Company.
Speaker 15: They're just going crazy, killing everything chickens, kids, women, what
Speaker 15: they're wiping out everything.
Speaker 9: There's no orders to kill women and kids.
Speaker 6: Tell them that, Jesus.
Speaker 9: Parker, hold your position here. I'm going up to Leif
Speaker 9: funk four Thompson Hicks with me. Let scope.
Speaker 7: Stop.
Speaker 9: You can get down.
Speaker 6: Christ What are they doing? It sounds like they're killing him. Captain,
Speaker 6: this is a massacre. None of these people are viet
Speaker 6: cong As. If it was right, there are all kids
Speaker 6: and women and old guys. Holy God, Captain.
Speaker 1: Over a hundred villagers had already been shot or bayoneted
Speaker 1: with no letup in sight.
Speaker 4: I have to stop this and ne'd cover Thompson Hicks.
Speaker 8: Captain, Yes, sir, okay, let's get.
Speaker 4: On down there a lead put on three aim over
Speaker 4: their heads and keep going until they come to their senses.
Speaker 9: You ready go, okay? What crow right?
Speaker 13: Put DNA stop stop it, God stop, say company, this
Speaker 13: is insane.
Speaker 9: Stop but dd I can't rule your bed. He's art
Speaker 9: be saying, what the hell are you doing? Turn it
Speaker 9: out now? No more? That's it?
Speaker 13: Okay, but oh your guy shit, I'm on a landmine, Captain,
Speaker 13: say stay there, Thompson.
Speaker 9: Sh I'm gonna try to to disengage, Captain. It's gonna
Speaker 9: be okay, Captain, we call him at he What have
Speaker 9: we got? Lambine doc folks leg blow the knee, alright,
Speaker 9: you're trying to get it into something giving him you
Speaker 9: don't know about other injuries, Scott, what a mess. Okay,
Speaker 9: Let's get.
Speaker 16: Him on a stretcher and strap him to the skids
Speaker 16: and morphe ready and when I say lip yet and
Speaker 16: lift now gently real channel, you get that strapped under
Speaker 16: the skin across the shoulders.
Speaker 15: Okay, captain, it's okay. We're gonna get you.
Speaker 7: Out of here.
Speaker 9: We're getting help for you with me with you kidding help.
Speaker 9: It's trying to relax, captain. Let's take care of the paint.
Speaker 6: I'm saying, guess captain, tell dad, I never got to
Speaker 6: say anything came out of the crown with that captain.
Speaker 6: When she saw me, she knew, she could.
Speaker 1: See that was.
Speaker 6: She knew what captain who is? She just just stared
Speaker 6: because she knew.
Speaker 4: Who was me?
Speaker 6: Who did.
Speaker 11: Too?
Speaker 13: To what?
Speaker 6: Captain?
Speaker 9: Hat see you soon never.
Speaker 4: Won album all.
Speaker 1: Gary died a day later. Joseph wrote an article about
Speaker 1: his son and the massacre at Leefung for.
Speaker 7: Journalism goes to mister Joseph Sherman.
Speaker 1: It won him a Pulitzer Prize.
Speaker 15: Thank you, Thank you everyone.
Speaker 5: Obviously I'm not Joseph Sherman, who sadly is unable to
Speaker 5: be with us today, but I am honored to accept
Speaker 5: this award on Joseph's behalf.
Speaker 1: Joseph had not only been unable to make the awards ceremony,
Speaker 1: he had been unable to return to the United States
Speaker 1: at all.
Speaker 15: He had lost his.
Speaker 1: Son and Land, the woman he loved, and a few
Speaker 1: weeks earlier he had received confirmation that his daughter too
Speaker 1: yet had been killed in an American bombing raid on Hanoi.
Speaker 1: He felt his life no longer had any meaning. He
Speaker 1: had no family and no home.
Speaker 15: Keep the change.
Speaker 1: Instead, he traveled to London, and over the next few
Speaker 1: hollow years he became a fixture at the Foreign Correspondence Club,
Speaker 1: a celebrity of some note who rarely spoke of his
Speaker 1: own story.
Speaker 15: May help name me Howell. He had to see Joseph Sherman.
Speaker 15: Is mister Sherman expecting it? I did cool and let
Speaker 15: him know I was coming. Let's see if.
Speaker 6: He's signed you ah, Indeed he has. He's usually at
Speaker 6: the bar in the kindle.
Speaker 15: Room, through here and on the right, Joseph, Oh, so
Speaker 15: good to see you.
Speaker 7: You too, drink, of course the usual on its way,
Speaker 7: Bill Jim Martini for miss how well. Hearing from you
Speaker 7: was an unexpected pleasure.
Speaker 15: It's been a while.
Speaker 7: Yeah, wow, I wish we saw more of each other.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm not a famous Pulletzerprize winning author. I still
Speaker 3: have to work for a living.
Speaker 7: Oh, you love it, because if you'll ever stop, you
Speaker 7: die of boredom inside a week.
Speaker 6: They want me to go back to Vietnam.
Speaker 3: It's all happening now. America's stopped trying the South. Vietnamese
Speaker 3: are exhausted. Communists are steadily taking over everything. Way's fallen.
Speaker 3: The Nang will go next a lat. It's unstoppable.
Speaker 7: I didn't realize it was that bad. I don't read
Speaker 7: the news anymore.
Speaker 15: Well, they're trying to sanitize the news for well consumption.
Speaker 15: But the writing is well and truly on the wall.
Speaker 7: I guess it always was.
Speaker 15: Oh, thank you.
Speaker 3: Anyone who has enough money to leave the country is
Speaker 3: leaving the country.
Speaker 15: When it does fall, there's going to be years of chaos.
Speaker 7: And let me guess you're going back, have to.
Speaker 15: It's the story of the decade.
Speaker 7: I'm glad you took the time to come back and
Speaker 7: say goodbye.
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, well I haven't. I'm not saying goodbye. That's
Speaker 3: not why i'm here.
Speaker 5: What do you mean?
Speaker 15: I'm here because you're coming with.
Speaker 6: Me back to Vietnam?
Speaker 15: Yeah?
Speaker 6: Why would I do that?
Speaker 15: Because it's your life, Joseph.
Speaker 3: Everyone you've loved everything, You've loved land too, yet Gary,
Speaker 3: it's all been in Vietnam.
Speaker 7: It's not my story, Naomi, it's theirs.
Speaker 3: Well, we'll see about that. Saigon could fall within a
Speaker 3: week or two, Joseph. It could all be over so soon.
Speaker 3: And I'm going back to film the Fall of American power.
Speaker 3: You deserve to be part of that story, because you
Speaker 3: are what was good about America and Vietnam.
Speaker 15: That should also be part of the story.
Speaker 1: No, I'm not today's story, Naomi.
Speaker 7: Really, I'm yesterday's story.
Speaker 3: So what about your granddaughter Trin she'd be what about
Speaker 3: sixteen or seventeen? Now she's still there, Joseph.
Speaker 15: What if she needs you now? What if she needs
Speaker 15: to get out?
Speaker 3: What if she's desperate to get out and can't and
Speaker 3: knows You're her only hope.
Speaker 15: Okay, is that but yesterday's story.
Speaker 7: Even if we knew that was true, which we don't,
Speaker 7: how would I find her.
Speaker 6: I have no idea where she is.
Speaker 7: I haven't heard from her in seven.
Speaker 3: Years, Joseph, look at me. You haven't heard from her,
Speaker 3: but we have what. She's with one of the communist
Speaker 3: platoons heading south towards Psychon.
Speaker 13: She's a soldier.
Speaker 3: Well, she's attached to one of the fighting units, but
Speaker 3: it doesn't sound like she really wants to be a
Speaker 3: few days ago, her platoon was going through a village
Speaker 3: about two hundred miles out of Saigon, and somehow she
Speaker 3: got a message to one of the French war correspondents
Speaker 3: who'd been covering their advance, and he knew someone who
Speaker 3: knew me.
Speaker 15: Take a look.
Speaker 11: Is that her?
Speaker 15: Is that Trin?
Speaker 3: She was desperate to get a message to you. She
Speaker 3: told the frenchman, you're her only chance of getting out
Speaker 3: of this mess. Now are you coming back to Vietnam
Speaker 3: with me?
Speaker 15: Oh?
Speaker 12: My god.
Speaker 5: Srud Saigon is a production of Thoroughbred Studios, gold Hog
Speaker 5: Productions and iHeart Podcasts, starring Kelly, Marie Trann and Rob Benedict.
Speaker 5: Based one of the best selling novel Cygone by Anthony Gray.
Speaker 5: It is created for audio by Greg Hadrick and Jeremy Fox,
Speaker 5: written by Greg Hadrick and directed by John Scott Dryden.
Speaker 5: Original music is by Sasha Putnam, with additional performances by
Speaker 5: nor mgnir and Letty Big Cheer. Editing and sound design
Speaker 5: is by Elouise Whitmore. The series producer is Emma Hern.
Speaker 5: The producer in Vietnam is Fatmung Mihen. The executive producers
Speaker 5: are Jeremy Fox, Greg Hadrick, John Scott Dryden, Howard Stringer
Speaker 5: and Jason English.