:53:02
and the cases of tens of thousands
just like me.
:53:06
We are not criminals
to be hunted and imprisoned.
:53:09
Over a half million of us
have deserted the military since 1965.
:53:15
Most of us have already returned
to the military...
:53:17
to be punished with jail
and bad discharges...
:53:20
that will be carried around
for the rest of our lives.
:53:23
And it is a supreme irony
to be prosecuted by the very same men...
:53:28
who planned and executed
a genocidal war in Indochina.
:53:32
Now, inside this hearing room,
Eddie Sowders has surrendered himself.
:53:36
Urged on, he says, by a hand-to-mouth
underground existence...
:53:40
that still nags at many
of his fellow deserters...
:53:43
who continue to look
over their shoulders.
:53:45
Paul Udell,
NBC News, Washington.
:53:51
- How was your sound?
-[Man] One more time.
:53:53
[Speaking Vietnamese]
:53:55
-[Translator] Let me respectfully
tell the American people...
:53:58
that this is their dirtiest
and longest war.
:54:01
The Vietnamese fight
only in self-defense.
:54:03
Ultimately, the Americans
will see the light.
:54:07
If not, they will defeat themselves.
:54:10
You know, Vietnam, uh,
reminded me of a--of a child,
:54:14
the developing of a child.
:54:17
The laws of nature control
the development of this child.
:54:21
A child has to sit up
before it crawls.
:54:23
It has to crawl
before it walks.
:54:25
It has to walk before it runs.
:54:27
[Speaking Vietnamese]
:54:30
[Translator] No matter how
many decades America fights,
:54:33
it will never conquer Vietnam,:never.
:54:39
I"m telling you so that you will go back
and repeat it to President Nixon.
:54:47
Over here, as long as there is
rice to eat, we"ll keep fighting.
:54:52
And if the rice runs out, then we"ll
plow the fields and fight again.
:54:57
I know very little about it
over there, I'll tell ya.