Flashpoint Vietnam – The Road To War

How did the United States find itself embroiled in Vietnam – fighting a war that lasted more than a decade and cost more than 58,000 American lives?

You’ll witness the rise of a determined Communist leader named Ho Chi Minh and go inside the U.S. Marines first major operation, “Starlite.” This is the story of how Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Baines Johnson led America into a war that may have been doomed from the start.

In this electrifying episode of “War Stories with Oliver North,” you’ll meet one of the very first Americans to see combat in Southeast Asia, U.S. Army Special Forces soldier Billy Waugh, who spent seven and a half years fighting in Vietnam. Hear how Navy pilot Everett Alvarez became the first American shot down over North Vietnam. As a prisoner of war, he endured more than eight years of brutal captivity at the infamous “Hanoi Hilton.” And you’ll meet Colonel Robert Nett, a legendary WWII Medal of Honor recipient who served as a military advisor in Vietnam in 1963.

From the White House, you’ll hear recordings of private conversations between Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and the two presidents he served – JFK and LBJ.

“Flashpoint Vietnam: The Road to War” is a close look at the early days of the only conflict where we won all the battles but still lost the war.