Patriotic Programming for the Fourth of July

Announcer: Major funding for "The American Buffalo" was provided by the Better Angels Society and its members; the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation Fund at the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation; Diane and Hal Brierley; the Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment; John and Catherine Debs; Kissick Family Foundation; Fred and Donna Seigel; by Jacqueline Mars, John and Leslie McQuown, and Mr. and Mrs. Paul Tudor Jones. Funding was also provided by the Volgenau Foundation and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you. Thank you. ♪ Announcer: Stories hold the power to draw us together and shape our tomorrow. If we're courageous enough to look, lessons are written in our history. ♪ ♪ ♪ Narrator: In the spring of 1805, the Lewis and Clark expedition reached what is now Montana, near where the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers meet, moving farther west than any white Americans had ever gone. Along the way, they had encountered tribes of Native people who, for hundreds of generations, had called the bountiful land home. Wildlife "seemed to be everywhere"-- and "in astonishing numbers," Meriwether Lewis wrote, particularly the buffalo. Man as Meriwether Lewis: The whole face of the country was covered with herds of buffalo, elk, and antelopes. The buffalo frequently approach us more nearly to discover what we are, and in some instances pursue us a considerable distance apparently with that view. Narrator: Less than a century later, in 1887, another expedition would explore the same region. They hoped to find some buffaloes to kill and then preserve for an exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. They searched for three months without seeing a single one. ["Way of Life" by Lakota Thunder playing] [Man chanting in native language] ♪ Woman: "Everything the Kiowas had "came from the buffalo. "Their tepees were made of buffalo hide, "so were their clothes and moccasins. "They ate buffalo meat. "Most of all, the buffalo was part of the Kiowa religion. "The priests used parts of the buffalo "to make their prayers when they healed people "or when they sang to the powers above. The buffalo were the life of the Kiowas." Old Lady Horse. Narrator: They are the national mammal of the United States, the largest land animals in the Western Hemisphere-- a species that scientists call "Bison bison." Nourished by one of the world's greatest grasslands, they proliferated into herds of uncountable numbers and in turn, by their grazing, nurtured the prairie that sustained them. ♪ For more than 10,000 years, they evolved alongside Indigenous people, who relied on them for food and shelter and, in exchange for killing them, revered them. Man: So much of my blood memory has to do with buffalo. We have regard for each other. And we are friends. We are brothers. We are related. So, I, you know, think of them in a particular way. And it's always with reverence. [Train whistle blowing] Narrator: Newcomers to the continent found them fascinating at first but in time, came to consider them a hindrance and then a source of profit for a growing nation. In the space of only a decade, they were slaughtered by the millions for their hides, with their carcasses left to rot on the prairies; the species itself teetering on the brink of disappearing forever from the face of the earth. ♪ Woman: The story of American bison really is two different stories. It really is a story of Indigenous people and their relationship with the bison for thousands of years. And then enter not just the Europeans but the Americans. And that's a completely different story. And that really is a story of utter destruction. Man: It's not just the story of this magnificent animal. It takes us into all the different corners of our history and how we interact with one another as human beings. It is a heartbreaking story of a collision of two different views of how human beings should interact with the natural world. And there's a tragedy at the very heart of that story. At the same time, as you follow it a little bit farther down that trail, it can offer us hope. ♪ [Buffalo grunts] ♪ Man: They're these big, slightly strange-looking but magnificent, magnificent animals. And they're ours. Right? They're our animal. Man: If you see one out grazing, it looks so slow. It's like a parked car sitting there. But they can clear six-foot fences. They can jump a horizontal jump of seven feet. They can hit a speed, hit a speed of 35 miles an hour. And you're talking about something that can get going that speed that's 1,800 pounds. It's like a souped-up hot rod of an animal hiding in a minivan shell. Narrator: Fully grown, an American buffalo can weigh more than a ton, stand taller than six feet at the shoulder, and stretch more than ten feet long, not including the tail. Huge as they are, they are small compared to some of the prehistoric animals that once roamed the continent: woolly mammoths, giant ground sloths, and camels, and other species of bison, one of which had horns that spanned 9 feet from tip to tip. After humans arrived in North America more than 20,000 years ago, all of the biggest animals-- along with nearly 50 other species-- went extinct on the continent, from either hunting or changing climate or a combination of the two. In their place, the modern buffalo evolved and multiplied, particularly on the grasslands of the Great Plains. Bison and humans, in a real sense, co-evolved alongside one another over the last 10,000 years or so. Sometimes the animals would ebb and flow, but they always rebounded. And, so, there was this wonderful kind of dynamic equilibrium that lasted for more than 10,000 years. Rosalyn Lapier: They have always lived with humans. They've always been hunted by humans; they've always had predators, so their entire sort of evolution as an animal species has been as an animal that has been hunted. And their primary defense mechanism is to run away. And they have that skill at a very young age. A newborn buffalo calf tries to stand for the first time at the age of two minutes. And, at seven minutes, they're able to run with the herd. Narrator: Over the centuries, their grazing habits on the wide expanses of the Great Plains proved crucial to its ecology--the types of grasses that flourished there and the other species that thrived alongside the buffalo. Even when they stopped and sometimes dug through the grass with their horns and then rolled in the dust, creating "buffalo wallows," the bison's habits helped support other forms of life on the Plains. Lapier: It's not just one wallow. We're talking about millions of bison, which means millions of wallows. Woman: Those wallows could do a couple of things. At its most simple and basic, it's a "dirt bath." But then it also has an ecosystem function-- water retention. If it rained, these become shallow little ponds and pools. And that, in turn, affected the landscape as well. Lapier: Because it's also a disturbed area, plants that flourish in disturbed areas will also then grow around a wallow. So they became these really great areas, not only for wildlife to use but also for humans to use because of the plants that were there. Woman: When the buffalo are here, the land is good. When the land is good, the buffalo are healthy. We have lived here for 600 generations. We have been here, conservatively, 12,000 years. So, if you think about that 12,000 years-- imagine that on a timeline, and then take that 12,000 years and wrap that timeline around a 24-hour clock. What that means is that Columbus arrived at about 11:28 p.m., and Lewis and Clark, at about 15 minutes before midnight. Narrator: Native Americans seamlessly wove the animals into every aspect of their daily lives and religious beliefs. N. Scott Momaday: The buffalo was iconic and sacred, and became so deeply ingrained in the life of the tribe that they could not imagine existence without the buffalo. Narrator: In the ancient origin stories of many tribes, the bison were among the earliest animals created, often emerging before human beings from under ground in what became sacred sites, like Wind Cave in the Black Hills of what is now South Dakota or Oklahoma's Wichita Mountains, whose most prominent peak is now called Mount Scott. The Kiowas, in particular, believed that this was the mountain from which buffalo had originally emerged and that whenever they went away--and buffalo did go away in the remembered histories of tribal people-- this is where, on the Southern Plains, the buffalo went. Narrator: The Cheyenne and Lakota each have their own stories about a contest between people and bison to determine which one would have mastery over the other. In a long and arduous race circling the Black Hills, some of the animals died and stained the soil red forever with their blood. In the end, the people won. Man: "The old buffalo bulls called "the young man to come to them. "'Well, you have won,' they said. "'You are on top now. "'All we animals can do is supply the things that "'you will use from us-- our meat and skins and bones. And we will teach you the Sun Dance.'" John Stands in Timber. ♪ Narrator: Every tribe on the Plains held ceremonies related to the buffalo, who, it was said, had their own families and clans, their own societies and customs, and were capable of changing forms to communicate directly with humans. The Mandan, in what is now North Dakota, had the White Buffalo Cow Society-- respected older women, whose leader wrapped herself in the robe of a rare and sacred white buffalo as they danced all night to call the bison herds closer. In a different ceremony, experienced hunters costumed themselves as buffalo bulls, whose power, called "medicine," could be shared with others in the tribe. Man: The first thing I was told about buffalo was not really the hunting part of it. First thing I was told about them was the spirituality part of it, about how they were created by our Creator, how they were put on this earth to help us survive, not only with clothing, with warmth, with food, with tools, but with the essential, which was the spirit of the buffalo, and how the spirit was part of us and we were part of them. Narrator: Each summer, the Lakota, like many tribes, gathered for a Sun Dance, their most important ceremony, which renewed their relationship with Wakan-Tanka, the great spirit of the universe that permeates everything. Buffaloes were considered the animal with the most direct connection to that life force. Over the course of many generations, the Kiowa had moved from the mountains near the headwaters of the Yellowstone River down to the northern Plains; then to the Black Hills; and eventually farther south to the Wichita Mountains in what is now Oklahoma. Along the way, they learned their Sun Dance from the Crows. Momaday: The Sun Dance was an indispensable part of the Kiowa life. And the buffalo was the sacrificial victim of the Sun Dance. Could not have a Sun Dance without killing a buffalo bull and displaying its head in the Sun Dance lodge. What more valuable a sacrifice could you make than to kill a buffalo and offer it to the sun? Woman: You don't just go out and kill a buffalo. You go to your ceremonies; you pray. And you ask for the gift of a buffalo. You ask that a buffalo will give itself to you. [Native people chant to "Lakota Powwow"] And it's a spiritual relationship. You do everything in prayer, and you do everything with a pure heart. Narrator: During the mass extinction of prehistoric mammals, the horse was one of the species that had disappeared from North America. For hundreds of generations after that, Native people ventured onto the Plains by foot, relying on dogs to pull their belongings. Hunting buffalo was difficult and dangerous. To get close enough with a bow and arrow or a lance, some hunters covered themselves with buffalo hides or wolf skins and crept up within striking distance. In winter, hunters wearing shoes webbed with buffalo sinew chased them into deep snow drifts. The biggest hunts involved the entire village in an elaborate maneuver to stampede a herd over cliffs. Lapier: There was a system of both kind of pushing the bison to where they were going, and pulling the bison to where they were going. They'll put on wolf skins and pretend that they're wolves, so, they're pushing, right, the bison towards where they want to go. Then they would have somebody who was really good at imitating the cry of a bison calf in distress. And, so, the cows are then leading the rest of the herd because they're listening to this, you know, baby, um, calf crying. And they're just like, "Oh, calf in distress. Let's go save it." And here come these stampeding bison and your job, if you're the decoy, is to do some quick, you know, head fake, and get out of the way or maybe jump into a crevice, and then the bison go over the edge. [Bird calls] Man: Sometimes, you can go to buffalo jumps when the wind is just right and when people ain't talking like a bunch of magpies. You get a little quiet time. You could almost hear the joy of the humans because, for a week, a month, six months into the winter, we're going to eat. And that makes people happy, knowing that they're going to eat. Narrator: Stripped of its hide, each carcass provided hundreds of pounds of meat, which could be roasted or boiled; cut into strips and dried on racks; or mixed with tallow and berries to make pemmican, a dehydrated concoction that was easier to transport, preserved the meat longer, and provided five times the food value per pound. Narrator: From the moment a Plains Indian child was born and wrapped in a soft layer of buffalo hair and a tanned calf skin to the time his or her corpse was shrouded in a bison robe, every day of life was connected with the buffalo. In winter, when the bison's fur was the thickest, its hide would be tanned and turned into a warm robe. In the summer, when the hides had less hair, they could be sewn together into coverings for tepees. Stretched over a frame of curved willow branches, a hide was transformed into a bowl-like boat for crossing rivers. A buffalo's bladder became a water container; its shoulder blade a digging tool; its horn a spoon or a cup. Buffalo teeth became ornaments. Some women painted their faces with buffalo grease to protect their complexions from the sun and used the rough side of a buffalo tongue to brush their hair. Tendons were turned into bow strings, and a sharpened horn fragment into an arrowhead. Dried buffalo droppings made fuel for fires, an essential commodity on the nearly treeless Plains. Gerard Baker: So nothing was wasted. Even the waste wasn't wasted. Everything was used except for the grunting. And, even then, they were used in some of the ceremonies, I'm sure, to imitate the buffalo. So, even the sounds were used. Momaday: It gives itself to the people as a sacrifice. "Here I am; you can make use of me. "I can help you. We can be related on a spiritual plane." Narrator: Whenever the buffalo periodically disappeared, special ceremonies were required to call them back. Momaday: So, when they did something wrong, the buffalo might well react and withhold their affection. "No, I will not make myself available to you for hunting. "I will hide. You will have to find me, and it will not be easy." The stories almost always convey a sense that it's been human hubris that's caused the animals to withdraw, and the only way to get them back is to perform some kind of really profound ceremony, some act that convinces the animals and the animal masters who are in charge of them that humans are once again willing to be fellow travelers in the world. Not exceptional, not standing apart, but part of the ecology of all living things. Narrator: The Cheyenne had followed them so closely and for so many years, they had 27 different words for a buffalo, depending on its sex, age, or condition. "As I now think upon those days," a Cheyenne named Wooden Leg remembered, "it seems that no people in the world ever were any richer than we were." But the Cheyenne prophet Sweet Medicine had also given his people a warning. Man as Sweet Medicine: There is a time coming. Many things will change. Strangers will appear among you. Their skins are light-colored, and their ways are powerful. These people do not follow the way of our great-grandfather. They follow another way. [Thunder] Narrator: In 1492, Christopher Columbus, seeking a western water route from Spain to the Indies, stumbled upon a world that Europeans had not known existed. Nothing would ever be the same for people on either side of the Atlantic Ocean. For the Indigenous populations of the Americas, it would prove catastrophic. In some tribes, nearly 90% would perish from diseases for which they had little immunity. Wave after wave of epidemics swept across the hemisphere as European powers competed to exploit the bountiful resources and countless natural wonders that the continent seemed to offer for the taking. One of the most fascinating wonders was the bison. Wandering across what is now Texas in the 1530s, Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca and three other survivors of a Spanish shipwreck became the first Europeans to encounter American buffalo, when a tribe they met fed the starving strangers with the animal's meat. Less than a decade later, a conquistador named Francisco Vázquez de Coronado led his mounted soldiers onto the Great Plains, pursuing rumors of cities filled with silver and gold. Instead, he found villages of Wichita Indians. But he and his men were astonished by the landscape and the huge herds of buffalo roaming across it. "There was not a day I lost sight of them," an amazed Coronado wrote. The only way to describe their numbers was to compare them to the fishes of the sea. His army killed and ate 500 bison on their futile quest for gold and stacked piles of dung to mark their route for the return trip. They then wrote the King of Spain that a fortune could be made in turning buffalo hides into leather. They saw this animal in incredible profusion. And they thought, "You know, what's in it for us? How can we profit from this?" Narrator: Buffalo were nearly everywhere in North America. No one knows exactly how many bison once existed on the continent, but it was in the many tens of millions. Their range extended from west of the Rocky Mountains into Idaho, Oregon, and Washington; from northern Mexico into Canada; from Florida to Lake Erie. Narrator: In 1613, sailing up the Potomac River, one of the early Jamestown colonists came across a herd near what is now Washington, D.C. But as English colonies grew along the Atlantic Coast, the number of buffalo east of the Appalachian Mountains dwindled. Worried that the animals were disappearing, in 1759, Georgia's provincial legislature made it illegal to hunt them in some parts of the colony. No one enforced the law. When Daniel Boone opened the Wilderness Trail into Kentucky for settlers eager for new lands, the route he followed through the Cumberland Gap was called a "buffalo trace," which the animals had been using for centuries. West of the mountains, he wrote, "the buffaloes were more frequent than I have seen cattle in the settlements." As a young surveyor and soldier, George Washington had once hunted buffalo near the Ohio River. In 1775, just before he left for the Second Continental Congress, he hired a man to capture some calves so he could raise them on his Mount Vernon plantation. ♪ Narrator: By the early 1800s, nearly all the bison east of the Mississippi were gone. But in the Great Plains, an estimated 30 million buffalo still roamed, along with 120,000 Native people. Life there for the Indians and the buffalo had already been transformed by something else the Europeans had brought to North America. Years before, the Cheyenne prophet Sweet Medicine had told his people about it, too. Man as Sweet Medicine: There will be an animal you must learn to use. It has a shaggy neck and a tail almost touching the ground. Its hooves are round. This animal will carry you on his back and help you in many ways. Those far hills that seem only a blue vision in the distance take many days to reach now, but with this animal, you can get there in a short time, so fear it not. Remember what I have said. Narrator: Spanish conquistadors had used horses to great effect in battles with Native people, who had never seen such animals before. But in 1680, the Pueblo tribes had risen up in revolt and drove the Spanish out of New Mexico. Their horse herds remained and flourished. In less than a century, the horse had spread from one tribe to another throughout the West. Momaday: The coming of the horse brought about such a revolution. Suddenly, it was magic and indispensable, and changed their lives completely. ♪ Narrator: A mounted hunter could now kill enough buffalo in one day to feed and clothe his family for months. And with horses, not dogs, pulling a tepee and belongings on a travois, families could travel farther into the vastness of the Plains to pursue the herds. Some tribes left their permanent villages and cultivated fields altogether to become semi-nomadic hunters and among the greatest equestrians in the world. [Horse neighing] Flores: Between 1730 and 1830, as many as three dozen different tribes, living either on the margins of the Plains or, in some cases, even farther distant than that, mounted up on horses, abandoned their farming plots, and rode out on the Plains to hunt buffalo. So that combination of those two great Pleistocene animals-- the horse and the bison-- became a revolution in American history that produced the classic Plains Indian buffalo hunter. Woman: "The great herds of buffalo were constantly moving, "and of course, we moved when they did. "All that was changed by the horse. "Even the old people could ride. "Ahh, I came into a happy world. "There was always fat meat, glad singing, and much dancing "in our villages. Our people's hearts were then as light as breath-feathers." Pretty Shield. ♪ If you think of a human being on the back of a horse as a kind of a new species-- a single animal, a single animal, a, "horse-man," hyphen, not a horseman, but a "horse-man." This is an animal that has the strength and the power of a horse, drawn from the sunlight and those grasses, and the grace of a horse, but it has the intelligence and the imagination and the ambition and the arrogance of a human being. That's a new animal. This was something that the bison had never faced before. And that was trouble. Narrator: Some 30 tribes converged on the Great Plains from every direction, each of them increasingly dependent on the bison for their sustenance and prosperity, and equally dependent on the horse for their hunting and their defense against their enemies. Narrator: Meanwhile, European powers-- the Spanish, French, Russians, and British-- were locked in their own contest over the destiny of the American West. Man: "This immense river "waters one of the fairest portions of the globe, "nor do I believe that there is in the universe "a similar extent of country. "As we passed on, it seemed as if those scenes of visionary enchantment would never have an end." Meriwether Lewis. Narrator: In 1803, the young United States joined the competition. President Thomas Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase extended his nation's western boundary from the Mississippi all the way to the Rocky Mountains. Jefferson then dispatched the Lewis and Clark expedition up the Missouri River to study the land's terrain and potential. Flores: They began to see a whole host of creatures that none of these people had ever seen. They see their first mule deer, their first magpies, their first coyotes, their first prairie dogs, their first pronghorns. One animal after another that no one had any inkling actually existed in North America is suddenly showing up in front of them. And one of the things they began seeing, of course, are increasingly larger and larger herds of bison, stretching to those unfathomable distances across the horizon. So, what they preserve for us in their journals is a glimpse into the America that had existed for 10,000 years before us. Narrator: On their return trip from the Pacific Ocean, the explorers had to halt their dugout canoes for more than an hour on the Yellowstone as a herd swam across the river in front of them. Man: And Clark says, as they're coming down the Yellowstone, "I saw more buffalo than I've ever seen before today." And he tries to give some sense of the numbers. Then, a few days later, he says, "Well, now, today, I saw more buffalo than I've ever seen before." Then, finally, he says, "I'm not going to write about it anymore because no one would believe it," that the numbers are essentially infinite. Man as Sweet Medicine: These strangers will be a people who do not get tired, but who will keep pushing forward, going, going all the time. They will keep coming, coming. Follow nothing that they do, but keep your own ways that I have taught you as long as you can. Sweet Medicine. Narrator: Native people had been exchanging animal pelts for European trade goods for more than two centuries. When Lewis and Clark returned with reports of rivers teeming with beaver, fur companies responded by sending squadrons of trappers, called mountain men, into every corner of the West, all to feed the demand in New York, Paris, and London for fashionable hats made of beaver fur. Elliott West: And this was really the first step in which Indian peoples of the Far West begin to become enmeshed and caught up in this global economy. And so it made them vulnerable in ways that they could not possibly have anticipated. Narrator: By the 1830s, the mountain man era had ended. The fashion had changed to silk hats, and most of the beaver had been trapped out. But there were still tens of millions of buffalo. Consumers in the East had now developed a taste for salted buffalo tongues. Thick buffalo robes became popular to keep people warm while riding in their carriages. Along the Missouri River and its tributaries, the fur companies established dozens of trading posts, where tribes bartered buffalo robes and tongues for goods manufactured in Europe and the East: metal pots to make their lives easier; colorful glass beads and woven blankets; and guns for hunting or fighting their enemies. Preparing a buffalo robe for market took time and hard work, from painstakingly scraping away the flesh and fat to softening the hide by patiently rubbing it with cooked bison brains. The semi-nomadic tribes were already killing more buffalo than they needed for their own subsistence in order to trade with agricultural tribes for corn and squash and tobacco. Now they killed even more to meet the demand of white people far away. When large steamboats replaced smaller keelboats and canoes, the volume of trade exploded even further. The first steamboat to ply the Missouri returned to St. Louis loaded down with stacks of buffalo robes and 10,000 pounds of tongues. In one five-year period, New Orleans handled more than 750,000 robes bound for the East. ♪ Narrator: Many Plains tribes kept a pictorial calendar of each passing year: a painted image, often on a buffalo hide, depicting the event they remembered most vividly. For some, it might be a battle with their enemies, a successful hunt, or the outbreak of a disease. But one year, they all recorded the same thing. They remembered it as "the year the stars fell." On November 13th, 1833, the largest meteor shower ever witnessed-- an estimated 72,000 shooting stars per hour-- burst over much of North America. Townspeople on the East Coast were mesmerized by the display. For people living in tepees on the open prairie, the spectacle was overwhelming. Momaday: The Kiowas were camped in the Wichita Mountains. The stars went crazy in the sky. It seemed that the world was coming to an end. They were awakened by the light of flashing stars. They ran out into the-- out into the false day and were terrified. They think the year and the event as being an omen. Bad things came after that. Narrator: The United States was pushing westward. Within 15 years, its boundary would stretch to the Pacific. To get there, all of the overland trails had to cross the Great Plains, still controlled by the Native tribes who lived there. Americans had different motives for their migrations, but the huge bison herds they encountered played a role in everyone's journey. Woman: "I never saw anything like buffalo meat "to satisfy hunger. "So long as there is buffalo meat, I do not wish anything else." Narcissa Whitman. Narrator: In 1836, Narcissa Whitman was headed to the Pacific Northwest to help her missionary husband convert Indigenous people to Christianity. Other Americans were heading to Oregon to establish farms; to California to pan for gold; and to Santa Fe for commerce. The Mormons went to Utah to find refuge from religious persecution. On the way, their leaders used bleached buffalo skulls as signposts, leaving instructions to those following behind, indicating prime camping places. Aristocrats from Europe were also showing up. Sir William Drummond Stewart of Scotland attended mountain man rendezvous and brought along the painter Alfred Jacob Miller. Prince Maximilian of Wied, a German ethnographer, went up the Missouri to study the Indians, and hired the Swiss artist Karl Bodmer to illustrate his detailed report. But Sir St. George Gore of Ireland came merely to hunt. His extravagant expedition cost him 1/4 of a million dollars. Flores: He's got 50 people with him, most of them servants and skinners. He's got six wagons and 21 carts and 112 hunting horses and 50 dogs. What it's all about, of course, is allowing Gore to kill as many animals as he possibly can. Narrator: During his three years traversing the West, Gore killed 1,500 elk, 2,000 deer, more than a thousand antelope, 500 bears, and 4,000 bison, leaving their carcasses on the prairie, unless he considered part of the dead animal worthy of being shipped back home as a trophy. His destruction of wildlife was so wanton, many of the frontiersmen he had hired were offended by it, and Indian tribes complained to the United States government. Dayton Duncan: At the end of his three-year journey, he and his men decided they would head down to the Black Hills, which hadn't been explored by white people, sacred ground for the Lakotas. So they showed up there, and they were met by a couple hundred of Lakota warriors, who said, "You've got a choice. "This is our sacred place. You can't be here. "You either fight us or give us your guns, give us your supplies, and head the hell out of here." [Hoofbeats] [Arrow strikes target] West: The West is where the American identity is. What are the things that stand distinctively for that West, and, therefore, stand distinctively for the American people, who we are? What sets us apart from the Old World? And they settle more than anything else upon these two images, these two characters of the Far West: the American Indian and the American bison, the American buffalo. They became sort of the symbols of who the emerging Americans were. Man: "It is a melancholy contemplation "for one who has traveled, as I have, through these realms "and have seen this noble animal in all its pride and glory, "to contemplate it so rapidly wasting from the world, "drawing the irresistible conclusion, "that its species is soon to be extinguished, "and with it the peace and happiness, "if not the actual existence, of the tribes of Indians "who are joint tenants with them in the occupancy of these vast plains." George Catlin. Narrator: The artist George Catlin spent six years crisscrossing the West, painting portraits of Native people and their environment. He thrilled at joining the Lakotas in a bison hunt, but Catlin still worried that both the animals and the Indians would soon be destroyed. Then he had a vision. Man as George Catlin: And what a splendid contemplation, too, when one imagines them as they might in future be seen by some great protecting policy of government preserved in their pristine beauty and wildness in a magnificent park, a nation's park containing man and beast, in all the wild and freshness of their nature's beauty. Narrator: But on the Plains, the nation's relentless movement westward was beginning to hem in the bison and the native people who relied on them. George Horse Capture Jr.: With the westward expansion, everything had to get out of the way. You've probably seen the old painting, "Manifest Destiny." They show everything fleeing in front of this horde of wagon trains and people on foot and horseback. When the Europeans come in, everything that's natural has to get out of the way. It just, it's just a matter of fact. Duncan: There is a phrase that, as settlement moved West, they were "redeeming the land from wilderness by the hand of man." You're "redeeming" the wilderness by plowing it, by cutting the trees down, by killing the wild animals and replacing them with domestic cattle or hogs. That was the mind-set. And that is the starkest way I can try to describe how different that was from the Native peoples' view of it, to live with the land, that they were part of it; they weren't superior to the rest of God's creation. We saw it differently. And a lot of people and a lot of animals paid a price for it. Narrator: More than a million cattle and sheep had accompanied the wagon trains to California, Oregon, and Santa Fe, devouring the grasses along the trails and spreading diseases like anthrax to the bison. In what is now Wyoming, the overland trails crossed through the hunting grounds of the Shoshone. Man: "Since the white man has made a road across our land "and has killed off our game, we are hungry, "and there is nothing for us to eat. "Our women and children cry for food, and we have no food to give them." Washakie. Narrator: New waves of epidemics from Europe had also devastated Plains tribes. The Pawnee lost half of their population to smallpox; the Mandan, Assiniboine, and Blackfeet were hit even harder: only 1/10 of their people survived the disease. Kiowa calendars noted one year as the Smallpox Winter. The summer of 1849 was remembered as the "Cramp Sun Dance," in which 50% of them died from cholera, while others died by suicide, in pain and despair. Germaine White: Disease came in waves. When one in the family got it, another and another and another, and it was devastating. They had a continuous grave. Narrator: At the same time, the government was forcibly removing tens of thousands of Native Americans from their homelands in the Midwest and Southeast, including the Sauk and the Fox and the Ottawa, the Seneca and Shawnee, the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole, transplanting them into a newly declared Indian Territory in Kansas and Oklahoma. Some of them began hunting buffalo, too. In the Southwest, New Mexican ciboleros-- descendants of Spanish settlers-- were also making annual forays onto the Great Plains to hunt buffalo. And from Canada, the Métis-- descendants of Europeans and Indigenous people-- were expanding their buffalo hunts across the border into the Dakotas. In 1846, a decade-long drought began, withering the grasslands. The bison herds, already pressured by the buffalo robe trade, diminished even more. [Man chanting in Native language] Narrator: A Lakota calendar commemorated a special ceremony meant to bring the buffalo back. The Kiowas prepared for a great antelope drive, because the supply of bison meat was insufficient. A Blackfeet band marked 1854 as "the year when we ate dogs." By the end of the 1850s, the bison had been driven from all but the interior portion of the Plains, where, by the mid-1860s, an estimated 12 million to 15 million of them still lived. West: That's a lot of bison, 12 million to 15 million animals. There were still a lot of bison to hunt. And there would remain to be a lot of bison there up until into the 1870s, when the real hammer fell. Man: "We saw the first train of cars that any of us had seen. "We looked at it from a high ridge. "Far off it was very small, "but it kept coming and growing larger all the time, "puffing out smoke and steam. "As it came on, we said to each other that it looked like a white man's pipe when he was smoking." Porcupine. [Train whistle blowing] Narrator: After the Civil War, Americans set out with renewed energy to unite the East and West, building railroads to span the continent, opening up vast areas beyond the Missouri River for homesteaders, creating easier access to distant metropolitan markets for crops and cattle, and servicing the demands of boom towns that had sprung up after gold discoveries in the mountains of Colorado and Montana. Man: There are lots of technologies that move into the Great Plains in the 19th Century, and most of them have a negative impact on the bison. But all of this pales in comparison to a sort of spasm of industrial expansion into the Great Plains after the Civil War. Narrator: Native people called this newest arrival "the Iron Horse," and the pace of change quickened as never before. As the Union Pacific pushed west across Nebraska toward California, the Kansas Pacific aimed for Denver, piercing into the heart of the buffalo range of the Central Plains. To feed the hungry crews laying track, the railroad company hired an ambitious and flamboyant 21-year-old Union veteran, paying him $500 a month to keep them supplied with the meat from twelve buffalo a day. His name was William F. Cody. Within a few years, he would be known by a different name. Man as William F. Cody: During my engagement as a hunter for the Kansas Pacific, I killed 4,280 buffalo. It was not long before I acquired a considerable reputation and the very appropriate name of "Buffalo Bill" was conferred upon me by the railroad hands. It has stuck with me ever since, and I have never been ashamed of it. [Horse neighing] Narrator: To publicize its progress across the Plains, the Kansas Pacific promoted excursion trips for passengers eager to have the chance to see-- and shoot at--the buffalo they were sure to encounter. A church group from Lawrence, Kansas, organized a two-day outing to raise money for the congregation. 300 people signed up. On the second day, they came upon a herd. [Gunshots] Man: "The buffalo kept pace with the train "for at least 1/4 of a mile, "while the boys blazed away at them without effect. "Shots enough were fired to rout a regiment of men. "The train stopped, and such a scrambling and screeching "was never before heard on the Plains, as we rushed forth "to see our first game lying in his gore. "I had the pleasure of first putting hands "on the dark locks of the noble monster "who had fallen so bravely. "Then came the ladies; a ring was formed; "the cornet band gathered around and played 'Yankee Doodle.' "I thought that 'Hail to the Chief' would have done more honor to the departed." Woman: "When the white men wanted to build railroads "or when they wanted to farm or raise cattle, "the buffalo protected the Kiowas. "They tore up the railroad tracks and the gardens. "They chased the cattle off the ranges. "The buffalo loved their people as much as the Kiowas loved them." Old Lady Horse. Narrator: For decades, Native tribes had resisted incursions onto their homelands, and the army had built forts in response. Now more forts were established and more troops were dispatched to man them. Indian warriors attacked survey crews and road gangs, sometimes even derailed trains. The army's retaliations were ineffective, and, in 1867, Congress decided to try a different approach. Delegations were dispatched to pursue what some called "the hitherto untried policy of conquering with kindness." That October, more than 5,000 Kiowas, Comanches, Arapahoes, and Southern Cheyennes gathered at Medicine Lodge Creek in Kansas to hear a proposal from U.S. officials intended to end the violence on the Southern Plains. Under the government's plan, the United States would encourage white settlement north of the Arkansas River. The Indians would move onto reservations in what is now Oklahoma, where they could receive food and supplies for 30 years, be provided schools for their children, and taught how to farm. The Kiowa chief Satanta objected. Man as Satanta: I want you to understand what I say. Write it on paper. I don't want to settle. I love to roam over the prairies. There I feel free and happy, but when we settle down, we grow pale and die. Narrator: "Do not ask us to give up the buffalo for the sheep," Ten Bears of the Comanche added. "Do not speak of it more." The peace commissioners promised that, south of the Arkansas, non-Indians would be prohibited from settlement, and the tribes could continue hunting there "so long," the treaty said, "as the buffalo may range there in such numbers as justify the chase." Though not every band of each tribe was represented, the treaty was signed and sent to Congress. The Kiowa calendar for that year showed an Indian and a white man shaking hands near a grove of trees. West: The government comes away from that treaty thinking that it has set in motion this transformation of Indian peoples from hunting, gathering, semi-nomadic people to farmers. The Comanches and Kiowas come away from that treaty thinking that they have now permission to continue doing what they have always done, and therefore achieving absolutely nothing. Narrator: A year later, farther north, at Fort Laramie on the Platte, a similar treaty was signed by some of the Lakota Sioux. In exchange for the government abandoning its Army forts in Wyoming's Powder River country, a vast Sioux reservation was created, encompassing half of present-day South Dakota, including the sacred Black Hills. The treaty also contained a clause stating the Lakotas were free to hunt outside the reservation, so long as there were buffalo. General William Tecumseh Sherman, now in command of the army in the West, reluctantly agreed to the hunting concession. "This may lead to collisions," Sherman wrote his brother, "but it will not be long before all the buffaloes are extinct near and between the railroads." ["Mandan Warriors Calling Song" by Keith Bear playing] Man: "We want to go on the buffalo hunt "so long as there are any buffaloes. "We are afraid when we have no meat "to offer the Great Spirit, "he will be angry and punish us. Those buffalo are mine." Pe-ta-na-sharo. Narrator: In 1872, a hunt took place in southwestern Nebraska. Under the government's Peace Policy, the Pawnees had also been placed on a reservation, but were given permission to leave it in their annual search for bison herds, provided they were chaperoned by white men, whose job was to make sure there were no troubles with settlers now living on the Pawnees' old homelands. Joining the hunt was a 22-year-old son of a prominent Wall Street banker, George Bird Grinnell. As a student at Yale, he had ventured west for the first time as part of a paleontology expedition that unearthed the bones of extinct animals, including a pterodactyl and a tiny eohippus, the world's first known horse. Michael Punke: He has this incredibly hands-on, tangible experience where they discover a hundred extinct species. So, for somebody of that era, he understands, in a very unique way, that extinction is something that's possible. Narrator: Now the Pawnees introduced Grinnell to some of their sacred rituals before going after the bison. "The success of the hunt," he wrote, "was supposed "to depend largely upon the respect shown to the buffalo." [Galloping hoofbeats] He marveled at how disciplined the Pawnee hunters were, how skillfully they handled their horses, and how the whole tribe celebrated after the successful hunt. [Men whooping] Punke: That night, when he's sitting around the campfire with the Pawnee, he has this epiphany, and Grinnell was somebody who, throughout his life, could see what was coming before most other people. Man as Grinnell: Their days are numbered, and unless some action on this subject is speedily taken, not only by the States and Territories, but by the National Government, these shaggy brown beasts, these cattle upon a thousand hills, will ere long be among the things of the past. ♪ ["Kills Tomorrow" by Bobby Horton playing] [Distant train whistle blows] Narrator: In the fall of 1872, tracks for a new railroad-- the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe-- reached a small settlement that had grown up around Fort Dodge, on the north shore of the Arkansas River. Town builders had originally hoped to name it Buffalo City, but the postal service turned them down, since Kansas already had a town by that name. [Horse whinnies] So they christened it Dodge City, in honor of the nearby fort. The first construction train to arrive was delayed two hours, waiting for a bison herd three miles long to pass in front of it. Buffalo often grazed so close to Dodge City, one merchant shot them from the fence of his corral for his hogs to feed on. But news from the East was about to transform life on the Southern Plains yet again. Commercial tanners in Europe, England, and Philadelphia had developed a way to efficiently process stiff buffalo hides into a supple but durable leather, as good as a cow's hide, and especially suitable for the belts used to drive industrial machines. Andrew Isenberg: There's a shortage of leather. Leather is the fifth-largest industry in the United States, and so one of the reasons why this industrial society reaches out into the Great Plains to consume bison hides is just to feed this appetite for leather. Narrator: Dealers clamored for as many hides as they could get and offered more than $3.00 for each one. A young Vermonter named J. Wright Mooar brought in 305 hides and made more than $1,000 in a month's time-- nearly twice what an average day worker back East made in a year. Word that there was money to be made in hides spread quickly, and soon, more men flocked to Dodge City-- 2,000 of them, according to one newspaper-- each dreaming of striking it rich. ["Shadows On The Marsh" by Al Petteway playing] Man: "The whole Western country went buffalo-wild. "It was like a gold rush. "Men left jobs, businesses, "wives and children. "There were uncounted millions of the beasts. "They didn't belong to anybody. "If you could kill them, what they brought was yours. They were like walking gold pieces." Frank Mayer. [Gunshot] Narrator: Frank Mayer from Pennsylvania sank everything he owned into a hunting outfit: wagons, mules, camp equipment, and firearms. They called themselves "buffalo runners" because buffalo runner was kind of a romantic term that kind of suggested that there was some fair chase, uh, sort of fair fight going on. The notion of galloping up on a trusty steed beside a charging buffalo and killing it was the romantic notion of how buffalo were killed. That's very different, of course, from how commercial hunting actually worked. Narrator: For newcomers, Frank Mayer said, "Shooting from the back of a running horse was always uncertain." It meant too many wasted shots, too many wounded buffalo, too many carcasses of whatever bison he managed to kill scattered across greater distances. And the rifles they used often required several shots to bring a buffalo down. "I was a businessman," Mayer said. "I wanted efficiency." One hunter wrote a letter to the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company in Connecticut, asking for a better gun. Sharps responded with a series of new models, as did other manufacturers. The rifles weighed 12 to 16 pounds, had longer and wider barrels that could handle larger amounts of gunpowder to fire heavier slugs of lead with great accuracy over a distance of 400 yards, even reach targets more than a thousand yards away. [Gunshot echoes] The most effective killing technique was called a "stand." A hunter carefully positioned himself about 200 to 300 yards downwind from the herd. Then he picked out a lead buffalo, took careful aim, and fired, usually shooting for the lungs. [Gunshot] Steven Rinella: They don't shoot for the shoulder. They shoot it through the lungs. When you shoot their lungs, it would tend to not move far. It would stand there, get woozy, fall over dead. The other animals see the lead animal laying there, and they don't want to move. Now, if they started to drift, you'd shoot whoever is out in the lead of that drift... [Gunshot] anything you can do to not induce panic, and they would just whittle away at these things. [Gunshot] Duncan: Bang! Another one goes down. They mill around and they're still not spooked. [Gunshots] This was short-circuiting 10,000 years... of defense mechanism that had evolved over time. Narrator: Native people who saw the new buffalo guns in action said it "shoots today and kills tomorrow." [Gunshot] Duncan: Kills tomorrow? That's exactly what was happening. It was killing tomorrow for the bison and for the people who relied on it. ["Firesong" by Kevin MacLeod playing] Woman as Old Lady Horse: The white men hired hunters to do nothing but kill the buffalo. Up and down the plains these men ranged, shooting sometimes as many as a hundred a day. [Horse whinnies] Behind them came the skinners with their wagons. They piled the hides into the wagons until they were full and then took their loads to the railroad stations. Man as Frank Mayer: It was a harvest. We were the harvesters. We never killed all the buff we could, but only as many as our skinners could handle. Narrator: The skinners went to work, stripping the hide off the carcasses from the neck down. Some outfits also took some of the meat for sale. Most just removed the tongues, worth 25 cents each, and left everything else-- 600 to 800 pounds of meat, along with the hooves and the head and the horns-- to rot. Man: "Where there were myriads of buffalo the year before, there were now myriads of carcasses." [Flies buzzing] "The air was foul "with a sickening stench, and the vast plain, "which only a short 12 months before teemed with animal life, was a dead, solitary, putrid desert." Colonel Richard Irving Dodge. Duncan: This is the Industrial Revolution arriving on the magnificent Great Plains. They were turning it into a--a factory floor. You know, they--instead of assembling something, though, they were disassembling something. They were disassembling an animal and just taking a certain part of it and leaving the rest. And then the conveyer belt was the railroads that would take the disassembled part back to run a machine on the East Coast. It was a factory, and the-- and the buffalo hunters, whatever we might want to think about them, they were, in essence, you know, they were factory workers. [Continuing gunshots] It had this metronomic, industrial beat to it. Relentless, relentless, relentless. Narrator: More than a million hides made their way East from the southern Plains before the end of 1873. [Dogs bark, cattle low] Even that number did not account for the actual damage to the bison. If they shot the buffalo more than once, that could destroy the hide. If the skinners were not good at their work, the skinners could destroy the hide. If the hides were staked out and there was a rainstorm, the hides could rot. Insects came along and chewed on the hides. So, by one estimate, it-- you had to kill about four buffalo to get one hide-- hide to market, so not only was the carcass wasted, but even the hides were wasted in this industry. ["The Shores of Ogygia" by Bobby Horton playing] Narrator: Uncounted numbers of wounded buffalo wandered off and died. So did motherless calves. [Calf crying] Man: It was a business proposition for them. A hide's a hide. If you shoot the mother of a calf, what the hell? But those calves, I would venture every one of them died. They don't survive if they don't have their mother. It was a ugly, ugly business. [Continuing gunshots] Man as Mayer: "With 5,000 rifles a day leveled at him, "it wasn't long till there was very little of him, or her, left to shoot." "Within a year, or a year and a half "after I got into the business, "we hit what I now know is called diminishing returns. "We called it a scarcity of buffalo, "and my dreams of fortune-- they grew dimmer and dimmer as the months went by." Frank Mayer. Narrator: The hide yards at Dodge City now stood empty. But south of the Arkansas River-- in the area reserved by the Medicine Lodge Treaty solely for Native hunting-- massive herds of buffalo still roamed. The Vermonter J. Wright Mooar crossed over to investigate. [Galloping hoofbeats] "For five days," he said, "we rode through and camped in a mobile sea of living buffalo." Back at Fort Dodge, he and other hunters asked the commander what the army would do if they trespassed onto the treaty lands. "If I were a buffalo hunter," the officer replied, "I would hunt buffalo where the buffalo are." West: The military in the West certainly had a motive to do what they could to eliminate as many bison as they could because they understood the obvious, that the bison were key to the Native economy. If you cut the legs from under that economy, then you're not going to have much resistance from Native people. The army was a facilitator in the destruction of the bison. They didn't do it themselves, but they certainly helped it and supported it. I think it was a deliberate policy of the U.S. government for the bison to be destroyed. It was not something that they wrote down and propagated through legislation. But, I think, through all sorts of informal practices and lots of winking and nudging, the destruction of the buffalo is something that was-- was very much encouraged. Man: "The Arkansas was called the dead line, "south of which no hunter should go, "but as buffalo grew fewer in number, "we gazed longingly across the sandy wastes "that marked the course of that river. "The oftener we looked, the more eager "we became to tempt fate. "Even the sky looked more inviting in that direction. So, we crossed over." Billy Dixon. ♪ ["Land of the Sky" by Al Petteway, Amy White playing] [Wind howling] Isenberg: There are a couple of army officers who write to people in the East, and they say, "Look, we've got to put a stop to this. "You're causing a lot of misery, "which may just create more violence "than solving the problem of violence in the Great Plains." Narrator: In early 1874, Congressman Greenbury Lafayette Fort of Illinois proposed legislation making it "unlawful "for any person who is not an Indian "to kill, wound, or in any way "destroy any female buffalo, of any age, "found at large within the boundaries of the Territories of the United States." Reformers like Representative Fort had been galvanized by reports of the slaughter underway on the southern Plains. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was also campaigning for something to be done. But the Secretary of the Interior, Columbus Delano, had already made his position clear. Man as Delano: I would not seriously regret the total disappearance of the buffalo from the western prairies, in its effect on the Indians, regarding it rather as a means of hastening their sense of dependence upon the products of the soil and their own labors. White: When there was a desire to connect the East Coast and the West Coast, there were two great impediments. One was bison, the other was Indigenous people, and they thought they could solve the second by eliminating the first. It was kind of a "two-fer." Narrator: Arguing against the bill's passage, Congressman James Garfield of Ohio said, "It may be possible that in our mercy to the buffalo, we may be cruel to the Indian." Eliminating the herds, he added, would "be the best thing which could happen for the betterment of our Indian question." To Congressman Fort, that argument was absurd. "I am not in favor," he said, "of civilizing the Indian by starving him to death." [Gavel pounds] In the end, the House passed the buffalo protection bill and sent it to the Senate, which also voted in favor of it. Duncan: I'm actually surprised the bill passed, given the times, but it did. And it went to Grant's desk and, of course, Grant would be listening to his Secretary of the Interior and so he didn't actually veto it, but Congress recessed, and so, with not signing it, he, in effect, killed the bill. Narrator: It was clear the American government would not defend the American buffalo. Duncan: It doesn't really matter whether it was an official policy or a secret policy or no policy at all. It had the same effect for the bison, who were eliminated, and for the people who, for thousands of years, had depended on those animals. The U.S. government made treaties with the Indians when they wanted something and it was convenient. And the second that the treaty was inconvenient and they wanted something else, they broke the treaty. And that pattern permeates the history of the United States government with Indigenous peoples. ["Northwest Territory" by Tony Ellis playing] Narrator: In 1874, things got worse. Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer led an expedition into the Black Hills, an area considered sacred by the Lakota and reserved exclusively for them by treaty. A prospector Custer brought along started searching for gold there. Meanwhile, farther south, hide hunters continued to cross the Arkansas River into the buffalo range supposedly off-limits to whites and brazenly established outposts to keep themselves supplied with ammunition and whatever else they needed to continue their deadly business. Man: "Your people make big talk "and sometimes make war if an Indian kills "a white man's ox to keep his wife "and children from starving. "What do you think my people ought to do "when they see their cattle-- the buffalo-- killed by your race when they are not hungry?" Little Robe. [Flash bulb pops] Man as Mayer: "The Indians sensed that we were "taking away their birthright "and that with every boom of a buffalo rifle, "their tenure on their homeland became weakened, "and that eventually, they would have "no homeland and no buffalo. "So they did what you and I would do "if our existence were jeopardized: they fought." Frank Mayer. Narrator: Incensed by the treaty violations in the southern and northern Plains, warriors from the Lakota, Cheyenne, Arapahoe, Kiowa, and Comanche struck back, raiding stagecoaches, wagon trains, and homesteads. Among the Quahada band of Comanches was a tall 26-year-old, who was already rising in leadership, named Quanah. He had been born near the sacred Wichita Mountains, the oldest son of a prominent chief and a white woman, Cynthia Ann Parker, who had been taken captive as a child and adopted into the Comanche tribe. [Gunfire] In 1860, while Quanah and his father and most of the other warriors were gone, Texas Rangers overran their village, killed a number of people, and took his mother and baby sister into custody. Man: It was a massacre, but it wasn't a famous thing you read about in Texas history. They eventually took her back to her--her people, but she didn't want to go. She never wanted to go back because she was Comanche. Narrator: Cynthia tried several times to rejoin the Comanches without success. She lost her young daughter to pneumonia. Unable to live among her people, Cynthia died in despair. Her son Quanah had already distinguished himself with his fearless courage, leading attacks on Texans, against whom he harbored an implacable hatred for kidnapping his mother and sister. He had attended the Medicine Lodge Treaty negotiations, which the Quahadas had adamantly refused to sign. For seven years, they had stayed away from the reservation, and Quanah took part in skirmishes with the soldiers sent to force them in. Now, at the yearly Sun Dance, a war against the hide hunters was being planned. Man: Quanah knew that they had to destroy the buffalo hunters. It becomes a matter of defense, of defending your people, of defending your family, of defending the buffalo. Narrator: A Comanche medicine man named Isatai announced that in a vision, he had been given special powers to help the tribes retake their homelands and restore the old ways. Man: "Isatai was making big talk at that time. "He says, 'God told me "'we are going to kill lots of white men. "'I will stop the bullets in their guns. "'Bullets will not pierce our shirts. We will kill them all.'" Quanah. [Melody by Bobby Horton playing] Narrator: With Quanah and Isatai leading, more than 300 Comanche, Kiowa, and Cheyenne set off for Adobe Walls, a trading post in the Texas Panhandle servicing the buffalo hunters who were trespassing. [Galloping hoofbeats] Twenty-nine people were there when the Indians attacked at dawn on June 27, 1874. Two white men were killed in the early moments, as hide hunters who had been sleeping under their wagons scrambled to defend themselves before taking shelter in the buildings. Billy Dixon helped drive off the attack. [Door slams] Man as Dixon: For the first half-hour, the Indians were reckless and daring enough to ride up and strike the doors with the butts of their guns. [Gunfire] Finally, the buffalo hunters all got straightened out and were firing with deadly effect. The Indians stood up against this for a while, but gradually began falling back, as we were emptying rawhide saddles entirely too fast for Indian safety. Narrator: Seeing a group of Indians on a bluff more than 3/4 of a mile away, the hunters urged Dixon to take a shot with his big Sharps buffalo rifle. "I took careful aim and pulled the trigger," he said. "We saw an Indian fall from his horse." The bullet had struck before the rider heard the sound of Dixon's rifle. [Galloping hoofbeats] Fifteen warriors had died in the initial attack. Quanah was wounded, but kept fighting. "All the Cheyennes were very mad at Isatai," Quanah remembered. They shouted, "What's the matter with your medicine?" One Cheyenne beat him with a riding whip. ["Full Moon Insomnia" by Randy Granger playing] Narrator: After the battle of Adobe Walls, Comanche, Kiowa, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors regrouped and embarked on new raids across Texas, Colorado, and parts of New Mexico and Kansas that left 190 white people dead. President Grant put the reservations under military control. Any Indians who did not return were to be considered "hostile" and hunted down. On the morning of September 28, 1874, Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie and 13 companies of cavalry and infantry reached the rim of Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas Panhandle. Peering down, he saw an array of encampments spread along the canyon floor. He ordered his men down a narrow trail, and they began their charge. [Men shouting] The villagers fled up the canyon walls, while warriors covered their retreat. Duncan: Not many people died in the battle of Palo Duro Canyon, but what Mackenzie was able to do was they had left their tepees, their winter food supplies, and their horse herd, and he gathered up the food supplies and the tepees, set them on fire. [Horses whinnying] Flores: Then, he takes this pony herd of 1,450 horses. He lets his Indian auxiliaries have the pick of about 150 of those horses, and then he has his forces shoot down all the remaining animals. It was kind of a scorched-earth strategy: "I'm not going to keep these horses. We're just gonna kill 'em." We have elders today who say that if you go to that site that you can still hear-- you can still hear those horses and the destruction and the--and the crying that went forth, um, so long ago. ["Comanche Riding Song," by Randy Granger playing] Narrator: For the rest of the fall and into the winter, the army's columns patrolled the Panhandle, ceaselessly pursuing any straggling bands who didn't return to the reservation. Many of them, reduced to eating roots and rodents to survive, began to starve. In February of 1875, the last of the Kiowas came in to the reservation at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, then the Cheyenne in March, followed by some Comanches. By May, only Quanah and his 400 Quahadas-- who still had some horses-- remained free. Tahmahkera: It's said that Quanah went up on a hill and drew a buffalo robe over his head and was waiting for signs, for direction. It's said that a wolf came along and howled and took off in the direction of Fort Sill. It's said that an eagle flew overhead and began flying in the direction of Fort Sill. Quanah took those as signs to finally go to Fort Sill with the other Quahadas. ["Shady Grove/I Will Arise" by Bobby Horton playing] Narrator: With the Indians of the southern Plains confined to reservations, the hide hunters-- 3,000 of them, by one estimate-- went back to work. They considered 1876 "a banner year for buffalo" in the Texas Panhandle. John Cook, who had left Kansas to join the hunt, killed 88 buffalo in one stand, alternating between two rifles when one overheated. Man as Cook: A slight feeling of remorse would come over me for the part I was taking in this greatest of all hunts to the death. Narrator: "As I walked through where the carcasses lay the thickest," he later recounted, "I could not help but think that I had done wrong to make such a slaughter for the hides alone." Man as Cook: Then I would justify myself and pictured a white schoolhouse on that knoll yonder, where a maid was teaching future generals and statesmen the necessity of becoming familiar with the three Rs. Back on that plateau, I could see a courthouse of a thriving county seat. Some of these days, we will hear the whistle and shriek of a locomotive as she comes through the gap. And not long until we can hear the lowing of cattle and the bleating sheep and the morning crow of the barnyard rooster. Narrator: Frank Mayer was less sentimental about it all. Man as Mayer: Maybe we runners served our purpose in helping abolish the buffalo; maybe it was our ruthless harvesting of him which telescoped the control of the Indian by a decade or maybe more. Or maybe I am just rationalizing. [Knife slicing] Maybe we were just a greedy lot who wanted to get ours, and to hell with posterity, the buffalo, and anyone else, just so we kept our scalps on and our money pouches filled. I think maybe that's the way it was. Narrator: By 1877-- only three years after the fight at Adobe Walls-- the immense herds south of the Arkansas had been reduced to a few scattered groups. By 1878, even those were disappearing. Ranches, homesteads, and small towns were starting to fill what had been the buffalo's domain. For every Indian in the West, there were now 40 whites. The hide hunters' trading posts in Texas began closing. Dodge City was turning into a raucous cow town, where live cattle-- not buffalo hides-- were being loaded onto the railroad cars. [Wolves howling] Man as Mayer: We had killed the golden goose. Presently, all I saw was rotting red carcasses or bleaching white bones. And the stench was so great that at a mile away from a stand, you could smell it and be forced to hold your nose. Only the coyotes and wolves didn't seem to mind. ["Horse Stealing Song" by Joseph Fire Crow playing] Narrator: To bolster his reservation's paltry food supply, Quanah got permission from the army to lead 300 Comanches and Kiowas on a buffalo hunt. They moved south, across familiar territory that now seemed an alien landscape, littered with bison carcasses. Tahmahkera: You know, it's in such a short span of time where the buffalo are plentiful, where that way of life is going so strong. And... I can only imagine... the scenes of carnage... the rotting smells... while en route to search for buffalo... and so, on our lands are all these visual reminders of what others had done to us and to a way of life. Momaday: Life was over, in a sense, you know, and to see such a thing is to see the death of a god. Narrator: In disbelief, Quanah's group pushed on to Palo Duro Canyon, which had always been a reliable refuge for the bison. Instead of buffalo, they found a herd of cattle. The rancher who owned them rode out to parley. Charles Goodnight had fought against Indians as a Texas Ranger, and after the battle of Palo Duro Canyon, he established the first cattle ranch there. Tahmahkera: Goodnight actually rode out to meet them when he saw them coming. He knew that Comanches respected bravery. They respected that kind of strength, and he rode out to meet them to, hopefully, avoid any certain violent conflict. Duncan: He said, "I'm Charles Goodnight and I just moved my ranch down here from Colorado." He didn't want to say he was a Texan because the Comanches and Texans were mortal enemies. So Goodnight and Quanah start talking with each other, uh, and they eventually set up something of their own treaty. Narrator: Goodnight told them there were no longer any buffalo in the canyon, but they could continue their hunt to see for themselves that it was true. In the meantime, if they stayed peaceful, Goodnight said Quanah's party could kill two of his cows every other day so they had something to eat. Ron Parker: So Quanah went up to look for the buffalo and there was none, and--and then he realized that his way of life and, um, what they depended on, it was no more. Narrator: Back on their reservation near the Wichita Mountains, the Kiowas recorded the summer of 1879 as the "horse-eating" time. ["Coyote Dance" by Robbie Robertson playing] Woman as Old Lady Horse: "The buffalo saw "that their day was over. They could protect their people no longer." "The Kiowas were camped on the north side "of Mount Scott. "One young woman got up very early in the morning. "The dawn mist was still rising from Medicine Creek, "and as she looked across the water, "peering through the haze, "she saw the last buffalo herd appear like a spirit dream." "Straight to Mount Scott the leader of the herd walked. "Behind him came the cows and their calves, "and the few young males who had survived. "As the woman watched, the face of the mountain opened." [Distant Native American women chanting] "Inside Mount Scott, "the world was green and fresh, "as it had been when she was a small girl. "The rivers ran clear, "not red. "Into this world of beauty "the buffalo walked, never to be seen again." Old Lady Horse. [Distant Native American men chanting] Momaday: Old Lady Horse. I want to cry when I think of her. I see what she saw, a farewell of tragic significance. [Distant chanting continues] It's a shadow within a shadow. It's a dark, massive animal vitality moving inexorably away from existence. And it has, for every Native American man, woman, and child-- a significance that probably is ineffable. ["Pehin Hanska Okicize Olowan" by Lakota Thunder playing] [Native American men vocalizing] Man: "I want to hunt in this place. "I want you to turn back from here. "If you don't, I will fight you. "I will remain what I am "until I die, a hunter, "and when there are no buffalo or other game, "I will send my children to hunt "and live on prairie mice, for where "an Indian is shut up in one place, his body becomes weak." Sitting Bull. Narrator: On the northern Plains, where the railroad had not yet arrived, the buffalo were still plentiful. Duncan: The worst sentence that can ever be written about Native people is, "And then gold was discovered on their land." It happened in California. It happened in Georgia, with the Cherokee. It happened in Montana. It happened in the Black Hills. Punke: The Custer expedition discovers gold, and the Gold Rush to the Black Hills is on. The Lakota are enraged because, once again, this is a direct violation of an explicit treaty provision. The U.S. government simply takes the Black Hills, orders the tribes onto a smaller reservation, and deems all of the tribes that are not compliant with that, uh, new edict to be enemies of the U.S. government. Narrator: Large bands of the Lakota had refused to stay on their reservation and went to hunt in the rich buffalo ranges of Wyoming's Powder River and the eastern plains of Montana. They included the Hunkpapas, led by a chief whose name, Tatanka Iyotake, describes an intractable buffalo, resolute in the face of his enemies-- Sitting Bull. The Lakotas attacked the survey crews and military escorts working to extend the Northern Pacific Railway westward into the heart of their hunting grounds. A military campaign to drive them back to the reservation had resulted in disaster, when George Armstrong Custer and more than 200 members of his 7th Cavalry were annihilated on the Little Bighorn by Sitting Bull and his allies in 1876. [Dog barks] The army's response was the same as it had been in the southern Plains: a relentless pursuit that within a year forced the surrender of one band after another. But Sitting Bull and his people had escaped across the border into Canada, beyond the reach of American troops, where he intended to continue living off the buffalo. By 1880, the Canadian herd was gone, too. Sitting Bull's people began to starve. In 1881, he led his 167 followers south, across the border, and surrendered. At the Standing Rock reservation, near the spot where he was born, Sitting Bull composed his own song. "A warrior I have been," he sang. "Now it is all over. A hard time I have." [Train whistle blowing] That same year, the Northern Pacific reached Miles City in Montana Territory. Soon, 5,000 hide hunters and skinners were spilling over the plains, from the Yellowstone River to the Upper Missouri, where they set up what one army lieutenant called "a cordon of camps, blocking the great ranges "and rendering it impossible for scarcely a single bison to escape." [Gunshot] The killing commenced all over again. ["Wagoner's Lad" by Jacqueline Schwab playing] Narrator: Meanwhile, in New York, 31-year-old George Bird Grinnell had become editor of "Forest and Stream," a publication for hunters and fishermen that he was prodding to take on issues of conservation with more urgency. During the hide-hunting on the southern Plains, he had advocated for policies he called "just" and "honest" toward Native Americans that would, he wrote, "conscientiously aid "in the increase of the buffalo, instead of furthering its foolish and reckless slaughter." Now Grinnell turned his attention to what was unfolding in Montana. Man as Grinnell: Up to within a few years ago, the valley of the Yellowstone River has been a magnificent hunting ground. The progress of the Northern Pacific Railroad, however, has changed all this. The buffalo will disappear unless steps are taken to protect it there. [Buffalo grunts] Punke: This is the era of the myth of inexhaustibility, the belief that the West is so vast, that the resources are so vast that they can never be exhausted. But it was so much in front of them, what was happening, that I think they began to figure it out. It became more and more difficult to find buffalo, and there were ominous signs. Weird things began to happen, like they would find herds that were comprised entirely of calves. But there also was a capacity to deny and to believe that they had just gone over the next ridge line, gone into the next territory, and so all of that kind of mixes together. Narrator: In Miles City, in the fall of 1883, the hide hunters prepared for another winter on the Plains, believing there must still be plenty of buffalo between the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers. They came back in the spring with almost nothing to show for their efforts. Steven Rinella: There are people in Miles City who had been hide hunters, and they're simply lolling around, waiting for the return of the herds. They still thought there has to be some somewhere. When they had finished, they didn't know they'd finished. They felt that, well, it can't be over...and it was over. [Train chugging] Narrator: In 1884, the total number of hides brought to the Northern Pacific fit in a single boxcar. [Train whistle blows] ["Juniper" by Kevin Hoetger, Kyle Crusham playing] Man as Mayer: "One by one, we runners "put up our buffalo rifles, "sold them, gave them away, "or kept them for other hunting, "and left the ranges. "And there settled over them "a vast quiet. The buffalo was gone." Frank Mayer. There is no... no story anywhere in world history that involves as large a destruction of wild animals as happened in North America in the Western United States, in particular, between 1800 and about 1890. I mean, it is the largest destruction of animal life discoverable in modern world history. Lapier: Why Americans are so destructive, I think, is an important question to ask. Why is that part of our story? Why is that part of our history? Narrator: When the hide hunters went broke, some turned to killing other animals for the market, like antelope, elk, and grizzly bears. With wolf pelts worth $2.00 each in New York City, some hunters began lacing bison carcasses with strychnine, which poisoned not only wolves, but other scavengers: coyotes, foxes, bobcats, skunks, vultures, ravens, eagles. [Eagle screeches] Other buffalo hunters left to pursue other work. ["Two Rivers" by Larry Unger, Ginny Snowe playing] Native people had no choice. They had to stay, and without buffalo meat to supplement their meager government rations, many starved. On the Blackfeet reservation, an inspector checked on 23 lodges in one village. He reported seeing a rabbit being cooked in one and a steer hoof in another. The other 21 lodges had no food at all. Six hundred Blackfeet-- a quarter of the tribe-- perished during that winter of famine. Marcia Pablo: But that's really what the government wanted, was for Indian people to have to turn to the government. And they had to take away all of the resources for that to happen. It was devastating, and it was heartbreaking. We had the songs, but no buffalo to sing 'em to. It's like a spiritual trauma. Woman as Pretty Shield: "Nobody believed, even then, "that the white man could kill all the buffalo, "even when he did not want the meat. "Not believing their own eyes, "our hunters rode very far looking for buffalo, "so far away that even if they found a herd, we could not have reached it in half a moon." "'Nothing, we found nothing,' "they told us, and then, hungry, "they stared at the empty plains, as though dreaming." Pretty Shield. ♪ Narrator: "A cold wind blew across the prairie when the last buffalo fell," Sitting Bull said. "A death wind for my people." Baker: It was devastating for us. That would have been the most heartbreaking thing. I couldn't imagine it. I couldn't imagine the people, what they were-- what they went through, especially a father, saying, "I got to-- "I got to take care of my children. "I got to take care of my clan, I got to take care of my society, and I can't do it." ["Kills Tomorrow" by Bobby Horton playing] Narrator: Now a new buffalo business sprang up. Millions of buffalo skulls and bones were bleaching under the prairie sun, and it turned out there was money to be made from them, too. Companies in the East offered an average of $8.00 a ton for bones they could grind into fertilizer or use in refining sugar. Buffalo horns were turned into buttons, combs, and knife handles. Hooves became glue. Homesteaders in Nebraska and Kansas-- desperate for cash because drought was withering their crops--turned to harvesting the skulls and skeletons still littering the Plains. One entrepreneur in Texas stacked mounds of bones along the tracks of the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad and made $25,000. "Buffalo bones," a Kansas newspaper reported, "are now legal tender in Dodge City." A company in St. Louis processed more than one million tons of bison bones. The Michigan Carbon Works became Detroit's largest industry. In the end, the bone trade would generate more profits-- for the bone pickers, the railroads, and the industries-- than the buffalo hides ever had. Momaday: Even what remained of them was being taken away from their native ground. It was--it was, like, uh, grave-robbing, in a way. It just strikes me as--as, uh... a society trying to clean up, uh, you know, a crime scene. This is the murder of buffalo, our brothers, and let's get rid of that, let's hide it. Let's get not only the buffalo out, let's get the bones out, too. Baker: So they took everything from us, and we understood that as a way of killing us off. They're taking away our grocery store, and that's what they did; the buffalo was our grocery store. They killed the spirit of the buffalo, in some cases, we thought. But that's why our prayers got stronger. That's why our people got stronger; they had to. If they didn't, we would have been killed off like the buffalo. ["Land of Rest" by Bobby Horton playing] Narrator: By 1885, a species once numbering in the tens of millions had been reduced to fewer than a thousand-- mostly small groups of a dozen or less, scattered in different corners across the West. Even those survivors were under assault from any hunters who could find them, looking now for trophy heads to hang on someone's wall. The American buffalo was on the brink of extinction. But in a handful of places, people had begun trying to rescue a few bison and start small, private herds. In the Texas Panhandle, Charles Goodnight, at the urging of his wife Molly, had brought home two buffalo calves, which she was nurturing. In northwestern Montana, a young Pend d'Oreille Indian named Latatí had herded six calves from the Great Plains over the Rocky Mountains to the Flathead reservation. In South Dakota, Fred Dupuis and Good Elk Woman-- a French-Canadian rancher and his Lakota wife-- had saved five calves from slaughter, bringing them home in a buckboard. And in a remote corner of the recently created Yellowstone National Park, the last free-roaming bison herd in the United States had found a semblance of sanctuary, though, even there, poachers were beginning to whittle their numbers down. At the same time, George Bird Grinnell had begun a campaign to provide the park-- and its buffalo-- the protection they both needed for their survival. Man as Grinnell: "We have seen the Indian and the game "retreat before the white man and the cattle "and beheld the tide of settlement move forward, "which threatens before long "to leave no portion of our vast territory "unbroken by the farmer's plow "or untrodden by his flocks. "There is one spot left, "a single rock "about which this tide will break, "and past which it will sweep, "leaving it undefiled "by the unsightly traces of civilization. "Here, "in this Yellowstone Park, "the large game of the West may be preserved "from extermination in this, their last refuge." George Bird Grinnell. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Announcer: Next time on "The American Buffalo"... Man: You don't get a lot of chances to correct history's mistakes. Announcer: Unlikely alliances are formed. Woman: The early conservation movement is full of people who did the right thing for the wrong reason. Announcer: But is it already too late? This is the buffalo's last chance. Man: This is not just a story of tragedy. This is a story of persevering and continuing on. Announcer: Don't miss the conclusion of "The American Buffalo," next time. Announcer: Visit pbs.org or scan this QR code with your smart device to explore more of the story of the American buffalo, including interviews with the filmmakers, essays, classroom materials, and more. Announcer: To order "The American Buffalo" on DVD or Blu-Ray, or the companion book, visit ShopPBS or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS. The CD is also available. Also available with PBS Passport and on Amazon Prime Video. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ O0 C1 Announcer: Stories hold the power to draw us together and shape our tomorrow. If we're courageous enough to look, lessons are written in our history. ♪ ♪ Announcer: Major funding for "The American Buffalo" was provided by the Better Angels Society and its members; the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation Fund at the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation; Diane and Hal Brierley; the Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment; John and Catherine Debs; Kissick Family Foundation; Fred and Donna Seigel; by Jacqueline Mars, John and Leslie McQuown, and Mr. and Mrs. Paul Tudor Jones. Funding was also provided by the Volgenau Foundation and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you. Thank you.

♪ Man, voice-over: Bald eagles remind me of Americans. They're opportunistic and inventive, and they will do anything they can to survive. Woman, voice-over: Eagles are creative. They are strong. Characteristics that go along with the American ideal. Different woman, voice-over: For us, the eagle is more than just a symbol. It's a relative. They're something that we respect, something that we take care of. Their lives means just as much to us as our own lives. [Screeches] Man, voice-over: The eagle was considered the king of birds just as the lion is the king of beasts, and, of course, the eagle had been a symbol of power and authority, and over time, it just became almost synonymous with our country. Woman, voice-over: When I see a eagle, you know, I'll say hi to them or talk to them. Ha ha! Maybe I'm a little crazy, but they're part of our life here. Neil Armstrong: Houston, the Eagle has landed. Man, voice-over: In the United States, the eagle fits in to every person, to every event, to every president because it's such a part of history and culture of America. [Crowd cheering] Man, voice-over: The eagle represent the success of an ecosystem that's critical to all life. How dull our lives would be without all of these brethren that we have on this planet. To watch an eagle fly through the air and dive, it takes you to a different place. ♪ ♪ ♪ Hi. How are you? How we doing? I am going to Haines, Alaska... All right. to look at the bald eagles. OK. Assume I have nothing, so what do I need to go see the bald eagles without getting eaten up or frozen to death? I'm a city slicker. I don't know anything. OK. I would start with wool socks... OK. something like that, what I'll wear most of the time. OK. What else do I need? Your next thing, I would say long underwear. OK. I like something like that with a neck. It's definitely a little warmer. Next up, I would do a shell jacket. All right. What about the bears? You had any people attacked by bears? There has been bear attacks, yes. But nobody that's ever bought clothing here has been attacked by a bear, right? No. I don't think so. OK, so-- I think our clothing's bearproof. All right. I'll take that, and how long does it take to see the bald eagles? Do they just wait when people like me show up? They're everywhere. They're everywhere. You'll see them. They won't bite me, right? No. OK, so you've never been attacked by a bald eagle, right? I sure haven't. No. No? They don't come after you? You ever seen that movie "Birds" by Alfred Hitchcock? They have birds attacking people. I have definitely seen that. But that's not something I have to worry about? No. ♪ Rubenstein, voice-over: The greatest bald eagle congregation on Earth happens in Southeastern Alaska just before the fierce Alaskan winter. ♪ The journey takes several hours by ferry through the ice-capped glaciers of the Alaskan fjords. ♪ Aw, amazing, unbelievable. ♪ [Bald eagle screeching] ♪ Rubenstein, voice-over: The village of Haines lies on a remote peninsula nestled between the Chilkat and Chilkoot rivers. In early November, it's home to the largest bald eagle migration in the world. ♪ [Bald eagle screeches] Rubenstein: So we're gonna see some bald eagles here? Man: Well, there's 3 of them right here-- these are all adults-- and then, oh, here's some bear tracks right here, so this is a grizzly or a brown bear. Those are the claws, and, of, course, he's here for the same reason the eagles are here-- there's all these fish-- and, look, is that an eagle right there? Yeah, that's-- and so that's an eagle right there eating a fish. ♪ The congregation here is one of the great spectacles of wildlife in the world. I mean, it's akin to what happens in the Serengeti when the wildebeests, you know, migrate. [Bald eagle screeches] And do you think it's appropriate that the American bald eagle is, in effect, a symbol of our country and our national seal? Yeah. I think so. The bald eagle is unique to our country, and technically, we only have two eagles in North America-- the golden eagle and the bald eagle, and everybody loved the eagle, and so the main eagle that was chosen for a national symbol around the world-- Rome and many, many other countries-- is the golden eagle. The golden eagle is from the booted eagle family, the true eagles-- those are Aquila-- and then the Haliaeetus are actually fish eagles, or the bald eagle. And do you think the people in the Lower 48 appreciate the bald eagles and what they do for our country in terms of it being a national symbol? In terms of a national symbol, I think that they understand them that way. What I don't think that they understand is the ecological value that they have. The bald eagle is truly a symbol of the success of this ecosystem. So there's an adult, and, of course, she's hunting right now. This is observing the river. It doesn't really look like it. She's actually watching that immature eagle eat the fish, and she'll at some point, if she's hungry, she'll fly over there and displace that young eagle, and then you notice, also--see that magpie?-- there's a magpie stealing his share of the food, too, and so when they do drag a fish out, they're actually feeding a whole lot of other animals once that fish has been drug out of the river. And what kind of bird is flying down there now? That's a gull. You think the gull is now gonna try to steal some of that fish? No. He's gonna wait his turn. He knows better than to confront the eagle. [Gull squawking] ♪ If the eagles didn't come here, what would happen to Haines, Alaska, and the whole ecosystem here? It would start to unravel. Most people don't realize that there's a cascade effect. When eagles are gone, you see this degradation of the ecosystem, and, in fact, the eagle is an economic value here locally because people come from all around the world to visit to see eagles here. But the tourists who come to Haines, Alaska, is it mostly because of the bald eagles, or is there other reasons they might come here? They come to see a pristine ecosystem intact, which is a very rare thing in the world today. [Bald eagle screeches] This ecosystem is as close to pristine as any ecosystem that exists. In fact, this is the greatest expanse of wilderness left on Earth. ♪ Rubenstein, voice-over: If you want to find the largest congregations of eagles in Alaska, you've got to follow the salmon. ♪ I've never canoed down a river before, but seeing our nation's greatest living symbol up close and personal seems like a worthy cause. ♪ If you see a bald eagle, what is the impression that comes into your mind-- the beauty, the majesty, the strength? To me, it's healthy ecosystem. And why do the bald eagles come here? In one word, they come here for the salmon. You said healthy ecosystem, but is climate change affecting this ecosystem, or not really? So it is affecting it, and we have seen during really warm summers-- like 2019, for example-- some spikes in temperature here, but the Chilkat Valley is in pretty good shape right now, actually in extraordinary shape right now. Look at that bald eagle right there. ♪ Now, its eyesight is so good, it could see us easily from there. Evans: Oh, for sure. It can probably read the letters on my life jacket. Really? Yeah. ♪ Did you notice what we're walking on here? No. Bear tracks. Oh. Ha ha ha! Well, you got your bear spray. I sure do. Yeah. There's no bear that's gonna come in this kind of open-- No, although I have been seeing a bear up near Klukwan when I do the surveys. Brown bears or black bears, which is more dangerous? Brown bears. Brown bears. [Screeching] So we'll get this set up somewhere where we can get a good view. ♪ What the survey is, is I count every single eagle that I can see within 360 degrees. Evans: What do you think is the most important piece of equipment that a field biologist needs? Pen and paper. Pencil. Oh, pencil. OK. Well, worked for Darwin. Yeah, exactly. ♪ Rubenstein: How many have you counted so far? I'm up to 82. 82? Yes. And what's the record, if you see-- 1,200. Oh. Ha ha ha! [Screeching] Bald eagles are an indicator of a healthy ecosystem, so when I see dozens of eagles in one tree, that, to me, tells me that things are going all right here. Yeah. Wow. You can see a lot of them. ♪ And this is called a YSI probe, and it's going to measure several characteristics about the watershed, so right now, it's 2.3 degrees Celsius, which is perfect, as salmon like that temperature of water. So if the water gets warmer and the salmon don't come, what happens, the whole region would kind of change? Absolutely. I would say that we'd experience an entire ecosystem collapse if the salmon stopped returning. [Bald eagle screeching] Woman, voice-over: I've spent a lot of time over the years working with groups of people from all over the world, not just the United States, and whenever we see an eagle, everyone stops whatever they're doing and takes a moment to look at the eagle, to photograph the eagle, to pull out their binoculars. I'm a wildlife biologist, but within wildlife biology, there's a lot of different disciplines, and so I'm probably more accurately described as a biogeographer, which means I study the distribution of living things across landscapes. My yurt sits at the southern border of the Haines Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve. In 1982, it became the first state preserve for a wildlife species in Alaska. I'm looking for eagle nests and nest activity, and this time of year, nest activity is starting to go down because the eagles are foraging and some of them will be migrating. We often hear that Alaska's so big, there's wildlife everywhere, but that's not true. Wildlife need very specific requirements, and eagles are no exception. One of the main reasons why the bald eagle preserve was established in this location is because of salmon. The Chilkat River has a really special salmon story, and that salmon story literally feeds the eagle congregation. ♪ The eagles have a very powerful voice in conservation. It's one of those species that I can talk about when I walk into an office for a member of Congress in Washington, D.C., and explain to them, you know, where I live and why birds are important and give the example of the bald eagle... [Screeching] so it continues to hold this national and global significance as this incredible species of awe. ♪ Rubenstein, voice-over: Bald eagles have been captivating Americans since our country's earliest days. Its storied history as a national icon still resonates as an enduring symbol. [Car horn honks] Back in my urban habitat of Washington, D.C., the only eagles I see are usually made of stone. ♪ I've come to the National Archives to better understand the origins of how this bird became synonymous with America. ♪ [Beep] Rubenstein: And how often do you take the Seal out? Not very often, just for dignitaries. I would say not even once a year. Oh, OK, so it's in pretty good shape, then. Yes, very good shape. The first committee was established on the same day of our independence-- July 4, 1776-- and the committee was of Franklin, John Adams... Right. and Jefferson. They came up with a design. The Congress said, "We don't like it." 4 years later, in 1780, they established a second committee, and the consultant to that committee was Francis Hopkinson, and this is his design. ♪ Rubenstein, voice-over: Locked away in the vaults of the National Archives are the earliest renditions of our national seal. It took our fledgling republic over 6 years and 3 different congressional committees to finally approve our country's seal, eventually establishing the bald eagle as an American icon. Rubenstein: In 1776 when the 13 colonies said, "We're gonna be independent of Great Britain," to be independent, you need to have a seal to authenticate documents. Is that right? Exactly, and, in fact, it was on the 4th of July itself as the last order of business before Congress went home for the day that they appointed a committee of 3 of the most eminent members of the Congress-- Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams-- to come up with the design for a seal because they understood that this was an important step in achieving independence. In other words, after they voted on the wording of the Declaration of Independence, they said, "We're not done today. We got to go do something with the Great Seal"? Exactly. So this is from the third committee, and this is by William Barton, and this is his design of the front of the seal. McMillan: This is the first time the eagle shows up, so Barton gets credit for introducing the eagle, but he makes it very tiny, and it's not a bald eagle. It's just a silver-- Rubenstein: Looks a little scrawny to me... silver eagle. compared to bald eagles, right? Ben: What sort of bird shall we choose as the symbol of our new America? The eagle. The dove. The turkey. Rubenstein: Benjamin Franklin wasn't saying, "What about the turkey?" Well, Benjamin Franklin was in Paris at the time and wasn't actually there to object if he'd wanted to, but the story of Benjamin Franklin and the turkey is not quite what the musical "1776" made it out to be. The eagle's a scavenger, a thief, and a coward, a symbol of over 10 centuries of European mischief. Man, voice-over: Benjamin Franklin was reacting in a sort of humorous way against this hereditary society that had been formed which was a group of people who wanted to be sort of an aristocracy in America because they had fought under General Washington, and they had the bald eagle as their symbol. Well, Ben Franklin ever since he was a young kid hated the idea of an aristocracy or the privileges that were passed down, and so he pokes fun at that, and he pokes fun at the bald eagle as their symbol, saying, "Hey, we should have the turkey. "The turkey is an all-American bird. It's hardworking." He did it partly as a joke, but he was partly serious, as always with Ben Franklin. This is Charles Thomson's design. Rubenstein: His design, but not the official... McMillan: It's not the final. But it was the one that was approved. I would say this is really the breakthrough. There's a long tradition in Western countries that spread all around the world that for highly special formal documents, a seal is applied to show everyone the authenticity of the document, and so the United States needed a great seal for things like treaties to make sure that people respected the commissions that it gave to its officers, both military and civilian, and for other ceremonial purposes to be able to play on the same kind of stage that the other countries of the world did at the time. ♪ Woman: The eagle has a long historical set of values, so you have, let's say, in Rome the Aquila, which was the symbol of military strength. There's the keen eyesight, the predation. There's just these aspects of the bird that are associated, really, with the kind of violence of military conquest, so there's a lot that's, you know, what you could call apotropaic about a symbol. It wards off evil, and it's about reflecting out, you know, not so much that you live in that form of domination, but that you are actually using it almost as a mirror to your enemy to make you stronger than yourself. ♪ Rubenstein: So that is the seal of the United States of America. First seal of the United States, right, and the first time is was used was September 17, 1782, and was commissioned for George Washington. And this is officially called the Great Seal of the United States of America. Fitzgerald: Right. Rubenstein: What was the impact of having the eagle on the seal? McMillan: The various design elements of our patriotic symbols, the flag and the eagle, seemed to have caught on rather quickly in the popular imagination, and over time, it just became almost synonymous with our country. Film narrator: The Screaming Eagle, the 101st Airborne Division. America, I'm a bald eagle. Announcer: The next great Jeep idea--Jeep Liberty. Rubenstein, voice-over: The decision by our country's founders to place the bald eagle on the national seal transformed this solitary species into the symbol of a young republic, setting it on a path to become an iconic emblem of American pride and freedom. ♪ Along the banks of the Mississippi in a tiny Minnesotan town... Man: This is the oldest town in Minnesota. Also looks like the coldest town in Minnesota. Rubenstein, voice-over: is the newly minted National Eagle Center, which will soon house the largest collection of bald eagle memorabilia in the country. [Bald eagle screeches] ♪ This is Angel, our 22-year-old female who weighs 10 1/2 pounds, and let's see if she's interested in her dinner. It's a big chunk of chicken. She's very interested in her chicken. Ha ha ha! [Angel screeches] What does that mean? So that's a territorial call. Angel is just vocalizing to any eagle who may be in the area that that's her food, "Don't come anywhere near it." [Screeches] ♪ Rubenstein: This is the famous eagle collection here. You could see what is probably the largest privately owned collection ever assembled on the American eagle. When I started collecting eagles, I looked at the eagle as a postcard or as a print or as a political button with an eagle on it. It didn't mean anything to me in the beginning, but it started taking a meaning to me later in the collection as I collected more and more items, and all of a sudden, I said, "Hey, this is the symbol of America," and this really means something to me. This is a patriotic symbol. This is the symbol of independence. It is a symbol of freedom. It is a symbol of liberty, and it started having a deep meaning to me. Diaz, voice-over: Thinking about other symbols in America, something like the eagle has so much more power than, say, the Republican, you know, symbol of the elephant, the Democrat symbol of the donkey, and on the other hand, you can think of the eagle as a symbol of jingoism or of military strength that sometimes can become an overwhelming ideology of power in which imperialism is the sort of closest association, so, again, the eagle has this breadth that it can be used symbolically for very-- you know, for these very hopeful and creative ends and also for, you know, somewhat more sinister and perhaps jingoistic ones. All right. What are we looking at here? This is the presidential flag that, according to my records, it hung in the White House during the Jimmy Carter administration. Really? It did. I worked there then. I don't remember this, but maybe it was there. Well, they said it was used in the White House. Probably was. Rubenstein: Is this something you're proud of and you tell people all the time, "I'm the biggest eagle collector in the world"? Well, I don't quite put it that I'm the largest but I'm the largest that I've ever heard about, and I've spent quite a bit of time trying to find other eagle collectors or an eagle collectors club, and I've never found one. Cook: Well, here's an eagle I'd like to show you. This was used in the viewing stand in 1941 for the FDR's third inauguration... Wow. so this is a plaster of paris eagle that was painted to look like it's bronze so it would look like it was permanent, but it was just a ephemeral piece of decoration. So there's a doorknob collectors society, and this is considered the Holy Grail of doorknobs, and I wanted to show you a couple of other items that we've put out here. It shows eagles from a variety of different perspectives and angles, from ornithology to military to politics and art, propaganda over here with this Russian eagle, and how the eagle is used culturally here in "Tarzan" and in other formats. So every party wants to make its supporters believe it's patriotic, and so a symbol of patriotism is the bald eagle, so Democrats and Republicans both use the bald eagle. Is that right? That is correct, so naturally, what the eagle's all about, the eagle, it has two wings and a left wing and a right wing, and it represents all of Americans, so every candidate has used eagles in numerous ways as a symbol of patriotism. I see. Diaz, voice-over: When something becomes a national symbol, it's more fraught. For example, in times of war, the eagle becomes more of a symbol of conquest and of military strength, and other times, it can be a symbol of, let's say, you know, the land or of, like, a certain relationship to the expanse of America, and the eagle is a symbol of that vast space, and so within that, there's, you know, obviously the room for a lot of different identifications at different moments and what that symbol can mean for different, you know, people at different times. Rubenstein, voice-over: Another 50 miles up the Mississippi, the bald eagle is honored as a sacred species at the Prairie Island Reservation of the Dakota people. Woman: This is an eagle staff. Different tribes have different eagle staffs. They look a little different, the colors are different, and so we always bring this out at powwows and other ceremonies where there will be a drum and dancers. This always comes out at the very beginning of the line. It comes out before any of the flags. For us, it's more important than any flag. With the eagles being national symbols, it is something that we've felt were special for a long time, and it's funny how they just learned the same thing that we had known since time immemorial, how special the creatures are. The only difference is, it's a symbol for them, and it's a relative for us. [Screeching] Our ancestors, they were so important to them that anytime you had an act of bravery, wisdom, any kind of special event, you would receive an eagle feather. When a boy became a man, he received an eagle feather. When the men went to war and were successful in a battle, they would receive eagle feathers, and once they received enough eagle feathers, they could have a headdress made. Unfortunately, there are people that just don't understand the significance of the eagle and how important they actually are. The Dakota way of life, you know, they're a special creature. We share a lot of the same history that the eagle shares. The eagle faces a lot of the same dangers that we do. We both face different environmental injustices, so we see a big comparison there between us and the eagle. ♪ Rubenstein, voice-over: Native Americans treasured the eagle as a spiritual and cultural symbol long before our country existed. [Engine starts] Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jack Davis recently wrote a defining history of the bird and how it wasn't always so beloved in America. Davis: I grew up on Tampa Bay. When I was a kid, I spent all my time on Tampa Bay in the early 1970s, never saw a bald eagle. We pushed them to the edge of extinction in the Lower 48, and in 1963, the nesting population across the Lower 48 was fewer than 500. Wow. ♪ Davis: One time in-- in America, the bald eagle was treated like a nuisance species, like predators such as wolves and coyotes and bears and mountain lions, um, because it was seen as a threat to American livestock. It was unnecessary competition, a burden on, uh, the livestock farmer, but not only the livestock farmer. You know, Americans, in those days, virtually every American had chickens in their backyard and, uh, bald eagles are notorious chicken thieves. And so a bald eagle seen was a bald eagle to be shot. You were doing a public service by-- by killing a bald eagle. It's an interesting paradox. Americans love the image of the bald eagle, uh, once the great seal was adopted, but at the same time they'd loathed the species. Dawson: Before the establishment of the critical habitat for bald eagles, the state of Alaska actually had a bounty on bald eagles, and they think about 120,000 eagles in Alaska alone were killed for a bounty. Davis: So, the bald eagle, all but disappeared from the Eastern seaboard states. So many people were afraid that the bald eagle would go the way of the passenger pigeon, the last of which died in 1914. Then why were people so concerned about it? There are plenty of other birds out there. Was there something about the bald eagle that made people upset that there weren't gonna be bald eagles anymore? Many people recognized that--that to allow the living representative behind this powerful symbol of freedom, uh, to deny this--the bird of freedom its own freedom was duplicitous, it would be disgraceful, that it would undermine the integrity of the seal and our own commitment to the values that we associate with the seal such as freedom. They lobbied Congress for federal legislation that would safeguard the future of the living species behind that symbol. And in 1940, Congress passed the Bald Eagle Protection Act. [Boat engine humming] When did you begin to see that the bald eagles were coming back to Florida? Really, not until the 1990s that I personally witnessed that, but in the 2010s, the bald eagle population across the country quadrupled. And when did we declare them no longer endangered? In 2007, they were delisted. Man: You're gonna see the nest coming up here on the left-hand side. It's the largest pine tree in the background. You got two juveniles in there. They've been branching for probably about a week now. They'll be practicing their wings. They grab onto a limb, and they simulate flight without leaving the limb. That's got to be a 1,000-pound nest. How long-- That thing's over 20 years old. The nest is 20 years old? Yeah. According to the people that I've met on the lake, they've been in that tree for 20 years. There's an eagle sitting right next to us. Rubenstein: Oh. Oh, yeah, I see him. Man: Yeah, That's--that's the infamous bird. [Screeching] Rubenstein: After the Bald Eagle Protection Act, did the bald eagles proliferate again? Davis: Well, 5 years after Congress passed the act in 1940, in August 1945, uh, DDT was released to, uh, the general market. We are living in what has been called the synthetic age, the age of the atom, the missile, the frozen TV dinner. In the next hour, you will hear that this is also the age of the wormless apple and the calculated risk. Since World War II, production of synthetic pesticides has increased fivefold. [Engine chugging] [TV program music playing] TV announcer: Spray planes will drop half a million gallons of DDT on the enemy. Man: Now, DDT was used heavily in the 1940s, '50s, mostly in World War II as a topical pesticide. TV announcer: DDT-- the miracle insecticide that helped prevent epidemics in war-torn Europe and the Pacific areas, goes to work in an American community. Man: They found that it was very effective for crops. So during the fifties and sixties, it was heavily used as crop pesticides. TV announcer: Today, these insecticides save millions of acres of crops. Davis: So it affected fish. It affected all sorts of bird life. Uh, it was devastating. [Engine whirring] Woman: Chemicals are changing the very nature of the world, the very nature of its life. Now we know from... Man: Rachel Carson blew the whistle on all of that. Man: Her book "Silent Spring" set fire to what still is one of the most explosive and enduring controversies of this century. Man: That was a watershed moment where the science was put clearly out in front of people that, you know, DDT was having an effect on birds in particular and a negative effect and we have to deal with it. Davis: It had an impact. It raised awareness. And, uh, interestingly enough, in 1963, the first nest census was conducted, and that's when we learned that there were only 487 nesting pairs in the Lower 48. Nye: There was a lot of concern in the United States about the bald eagle and how could we let this happen to our national symbol? You know, what--what does it say about a nation who allows their national symbol to go extinct? Most of the northeastern states--Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont, New Hampshire-- none of them had nesting eagles anymore because they couldn't produce eggshells that were thick enough. It actually resulted in thinning of their eggshells, thick enough to hatch out their own young because the female was polluted with DDT. ♪ This is from the Audubon Society of New York State in recognition of conservation efforts, protection, and conservation of the bald eagle. I was always very interested in nature ever--ever since I was a little boy. One time, I thought I wanted to be a butterfly doctor, finding out there wasn't such a thing. And those are all real license plates. That's for my motorcycle. Those were all from vehicles, yeah. I always knew I wanted to go into conservation, and even in my high school yearbook said "Headed for a career in conservation." And sure enough, was lucky enough to get hired by the State of New York. This is from the National Park Service, Upper Delaware Council, Distinguished Service Award for work on the Upper Delaware River and bald eagle work and... Around 1974, when--when the Endangered Species money came through, my boss came to me and said, "We got an opening "in the Big Game project dealing with bears "or we have an opening in the brand-new Endangered Species program dealing with bald eagles." And what do you think I chose? Somewhere around 2015, an eagle I banded as a nestling in 1977 was recovered dead at 38 years old, which is a longevity record, known longevity for a bald eagle. A lot of this--you know, eagles create their own good vibes. You know, like I said, I was just lucky to be part of it. Well, before I retired in 2010, I was in charge of New York York State's Endangered Species program, a large portion of which was spent on bald eagle restoration in New York State, beginning back in the early 1970s. [Footsteps crunching] [Birds chirping] I can just see the edge of the nest, just to the left of this big stem of this tree. Tough to see if there's anything going on right under the nest here, but, uh, in these cases, we just have to climb and find out what's up there. [Chirping continues] [Sawing] [Carabiners rattling] Man: We're gonna be banding eagles--the eaglets today. The purpose of that is so we can track where they go. We know that these birds can live for decades and travel, you know, huge distances, so this is really helpful. [Carabiner clicking] Nye: You're on belay. Man: You ready? All right. Headed up. Good climb. [Boots digging into tree trunk] Nye: When we got going in, in the early 1970s, we knew that bald eagles were in a critical state. ♪ Eagles were never listed as endangered or threatened in Alaska because the habitat remained. So, they had plenty of eagles to go around. So, they graciously agreed, "Yes, you could come up and-- and take some of our eagles." Then, it would be a matter of actually getting young eaglets to use in this hacking process, which literally means hand-rearing to independence. Man: OK. All right. Nye: So, the ideal age to get them would be about 6 weeks of age, about halfway through their nestling period. ♪ And we said, "Well, that's good, but now how do we "go about even bringing eagles back to New York? Can it be done?" We had to charter jets to get back quickly and safely with our eaglets. And then the basic technique involved building high-elevated nesting platforms, building an artificial nest structure on the top, enclosing it with bars... so that airflow and rain and everything else could go into the cage. We had a one-way trap door where food could be provided to the eaglets. They wouldn't see human beings, get sensitized being fed by humans. We had a television camera out in front of these hacking towers that would actually keep an eye on the eagles. We could see how they were doing. We were collecting fish, feeding the eaglets, monitoring, babysitting what's going on. It worked. Those two eaglets fledged. They did well. We were happy. Next year, we went up to 4 birds. So, for the first 5 years, we released 21 eagles over those 5 years. And from that point on, the natural population took off from there. You're getting there, bro. [Boots hitting tree] One nice thing about the cottonwoods, they have a lot of nice bark to grab onto. Man: Yeah, as long as it doesn't do that. Oh, you test it. Nye: New York State has banded probably 1,700 eagles so we can see where they went, if they're surviving, where they end up nesting after they leave their own nest. Very valuable data. Nye: Got good news for us? Man: Nobody home. Nye: Bummer! Nye: There's no doubt in my mind that the whole hacking and release programs in all the states that were involved in this was one of the major aspects leading up to the-- the complete delisting of the bald eagle from the Federal Endangered and Threatened Species Act in 2007. Nye: Nicely done. Yeah. Unfortunately, the birds didn't cooperate. It was too bad that it was maybe just a single chick, also, 'cause if there were more-- Yeah. maybe we would have gotten lucky. Lo and behold, today, what we have in-- in the Northeast U.S. is a conglomeration of eagles from different genetic heritages, but most of New York State's population are all of Alaskan origin, Alaskan genes, which makes me feel good. Ha ha ha! [Bald eagle screeching] Dawson: It is interesting to think about the ways we treat our national symbols, the bison, the bald eagle, um... both of whom have gone through near extinction processes to be resurrected in different ways. The bald eagle is an example of a species that we have chosen to protect, and so it--it's a symbol of hope in a way, because it shows us that when people decide to act and make change at a big scale, then a species can be saved from extinction sometimes. [Bald eagle screeching] It is really interesting to look at history through the lens of the objects or the creatures or the practices that we've chosen to perpetuate, that we've chosen to give some societal significance to. And some of the earliest people to inhabit North America celebrated, revered, or recognized the significance of bald eagles. You can look across almost any culture in--in North America and--and listen to elders speak about the importance of bald eagles in some way. And so it's really cool to think about how deep our history with particular things goes and--and how that will teach us things about the future. Benassi: The concept of conservation has always been that conservation was a luxury. That we were gonna set aside a--a portion of an ecosystem because, "Oh, people will go get to visit that," rather than realizing that the Earth and all its life-sustaining systems are--are dependent on natural ecosystems. And recently there's been this interest in a possible mine at the headwaters of the Chilkat River. Woman: The Constantine Mine is now in the advanced stages of exploration, looking for copper, zinc... Woman: Constantine's new waste management discharge system is attempting to discharge their wastewater into the tributaries of the Chilkat River, Glacier Creek... Woman: Executives have dismissed the pollution concerns and said the mine development would be to the highest standards. Benassi: The native people are very, very sensitive to the possibility of the mine polluting the river, and there's not a good track record in mining and fish. And so, the community's very concerned about the possibility of it damaging their way of life. Woman: And what I'm working on here is a little Chilkat weaving. I--I come from a long line of Chilkat weavers. My grandmother was my first teacher, and, uh, my daughters have started doing little weavings, so that-- that spans 5 generations. Kaagwaantaan--that's the eagle of the wolf house. So, we have the eagle and the wolf as our crest, and it shows who we are. Like when, uh, we send an Olympic team, like, to Japan and they wear the, uh, American flag. When we wear our regalia, we show who we are. That eagle shows that we're Kaagwaantaan. My regalia consists of the eagle headdress that I wear, the wolf tunic, which is over here, and it shows my crest. Gooch is the Tlingit word for wolf, and this is the face of the wolf. And when I introduce myself, I would say, [Speaking Tlingit]. "I am of the Eagle Nation." [Bald eagle screeching] Man: You could say the raven and the eagles, they have an understanding out there to coexist. We're opposites. We're not enemies. We come from a people that likes to keep things in balance. So, uh, we hold each other up. We really need each other. We balance each other out. Jones described our relationship like this: [Laughing] "I am the kite and he's the string that keeps me grounded." [Laughter] I was born here. Jones was born here, too, in this village. And I've lived here most of my life, and the eagles are just part of our existence here. It's like we're all in this together. You know, you hear people say that, but we're in this Chilkat Valley together with the eagles. [Bald eagle screeching] When I see an eagle, you know, I'll say hi to him or just greet him in some way or another and talk to him about whatever. [Chuckles] Maybe I'm a little crazy, but they're part of our life here. They are like neighbors or even family, extended family. They live with us. This time of year, every year, when you see them on the trees, when you see them out there on the flats, it makes home feel more like home, and it just gives us a comfort. The salmon are the-- the thing that draws all of us here. When we hear the founding fathers story of Klukwan, part of the reason they stayed here was because of the salmon. And the eagles come here for the same reason that we do, because of the salmon. And the threat of the Constantine Mine, it's--it's not only threatening the salmon... it's our whole way of living here. The way our ancestors lived and the way that we were taught, it's so much a part of who we are, how we relate to the world even. I'd see, uh, indigenous people around the world going through the same thing we're going through, losing their lifestyle because of what industry is in their area. I'd say indigenous people are being used for the "progress" of industry. They're running out of land on Earth. We can't stop. We can't quit. It's home. And now we wanna pass it on to our children and our grandchildren, and we hope that this still continues. If the river gets contaminated and it kills the salmon, that would be the end of us. That would be the end of the eagles here. We'd all have to go someplace else, but where else could we go? This is our home. [Bald eagle screeching] The eagles are trying to get their two cents in. [Chuckling] He said, "You're doing good, brother." [Laughter] [Bald eagle screeching] Rubenstein, voice-over: While the eagles at Haines are facing a threat from mining... [Vehicle honking] in other parts of the U.S., the eagle has made a surprising comeback. Woman: Eagle-eye birdwatchers are flocking to Central Park, hoping to get a glimpse of the newest celebrity to visit Manhattan. Rover the bald eagle is huge with a 6-foot wingspan. Rubenstein, voice-over: I'm visiting Central Park to try and catch a glimpse of this famous raptor in the heart of Gotham. I wonder--they probably have a nest somewhere nearby, right? Rubenstein: Hi. Man: How are you? David Rubenstein. How are you? Daniel Picard. How are you? Hi. David Rubenstein. Hi, nice to meet you. So, are you birders? Woman: Yeah. Yes, we are. And what's the pleasure of looking at birds? Oh, the beauty of the animal. The beauty--the beauty of the birds and-- OK. So, have you ever seen a bald eagle in Central Park? Yes. Oh, sure. Rubenstein: And are these bald eagles that got lost somewhere? How did they wind up in Central Park? Picard: Oh, no. They don't get lost. They don't get lost? Picard: They know where they're going. Yeah, they-- Why do they come here? They come here because they--they eat fish, and they come down in the wintertime. You know, they come down the Hudson, and this particular bald eagle came to the reservoir to--to fish. Woman: Eagles do fly over Central Park from time to time, but the thing is, this one seems to really like it here and is sticking around. Woman: Birders call the reservoir up at 90th Street a kind of cafeteria. Don't worry, squirrel, eagles love smaller birds and fish. You should be fine. Rubenstein: Bald eagles are not birds that I normally would associate with Central Park. Why do they come here or was it unusual for them-- Woman: This was very unusual. It was very unusual. And he came, like you said, 3 times a day. Yeah. he came in breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day for, uh, 6 weeks. And just the same fish? And--and all the birders and all the photographers-- Fish, or... occasionally, uh, a gull, um, because, you know, they're big, big birds, they're fast, and sometimes the gulls cannot escape. And do you think there are gonna be more and more bald eagles coming because more and more bird eagle--bald eagles are coming back into the world? Oh, yeah. Yeah. There's more and more bald eagles every year, you know, beca--and they come down the Hudson River when it's--when it's frozen in the--in the wintertime, looking for fish in the river. Did you know that the bald eagle was almost extinct years ago because of DDT? McInerney: Yeah. Picard: Correct. So do you think they're coming back in droves now and actually we're having more than we maybe-- Picard: Oh, they're-- they're doing extremely well all over the country. Uh, and west--east of the Mississippi, whether it's here or further south in, uh, in the Chesapeake Bay, for example, is the largest concentration of bald eagles east of the Mississippi. Where? Baltimore, that area. Really? Picard: Yes. 'Cause I'm from Baltimore. I didn't even know that. Yeah. In the-- in the Chesapeake Bay. Rubenstein: So we have the Baltimore Orioles, but this is the Baltimore Eagle, right? Well, yeah, I guess so. Ha ha ha! Yeah. ♪ Rubenstein, voice-over: The eagle has endured as a dynamic symbol since the early days of our founding. Buck: Even though now the--the eagle is making a comeback, we call it the wombady. The wombady is making a comeback. You never know what's gonna happen. And the eagle means so much to us and protecting that eagle means so much to us because they're a special creature and they need to be respected. Rubenstein, voice-over: It survived two near extinction events before we realized that destroying the actual bird would in turn destroy a national symbol, and the freedom, individuality, and power it represents. Diaz: For a symbol to live, it has to be flexible enough to mean many things to many people. In the case of the eagle, it can be a form of freedom, individualism, it can also be the kind of like intensity of predatory violence... and really what that means to be in a dominant role, but the eagle is no longer the symbol of overweening strength and dominance but of something that is, in fact, needing protection. Nye: Well, even though eagles are a great success story, things could turn around so quickly. As we've seen in the past, things did turn around quickly, so like everything else, we have to remain vigilant to try and make sure that we're not losing track of what's going on out there. Dawson: It's interesting to think about the history of the bald eagle, how it helped shape who we are now, but how is the bald eagle going to help shape what we become in the future? How will we choose to continue to learn from the eagles as we figure out our path forward? Rubenstein, voice-over: The spirit and resilience of this iconic bird mirrors many of the values Americans see in themselves. The story of the American bald eagle is deeply intertwined with issues of patriotism and environmentalism and teaches us how these two ideas, often in conflict, can co-exist. ♪ ♪ Announcer: Explore more about "Iconic America" at pbs.org/iconicamerica. Join the conversation with #IconicAmericaPBS and stream more episodes of "Iconic America" on the PBS app. "Iconic America" is also available for download from Amazon Prime Video. ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: In 1775, an irregular army made up of American farmers and tradesmen took up arms against the most powerful nation on Earth, Great Britain. We think of them as inexperienced and outgunned, struggling with inferior technology, but was that true? (cannon and muskets firing) Can we ever know what it was like to fight in the Revolutionary War? (cannon fires) ♪ ♪ JOEL BOHY: You can read books, you can go to the battlefields, but doing experiments, shooting these weapons, really helps give us a better understanding of the soldiers from both sides who fought in the American Revolution. JAY WALLER: Certainly gives a whole different... MAN: Right. ...appreciation and horror. BOHY: Yeah. MATT KEAGLE: The Revolutionary War is on a real cusp militarily. You see echoes of older ways. RUSSELL REED: This is aiming for the head. ♪ ♪ KEAGLE: And you see some of these kind of glimmers of the future. The new technologies. ♪ ♪ FALLON BURNER: Indigenous ingenuity and European design. Technology evolves because of this collision of cultures. (winding) We have a ticking bomb. This is ticking. (bursts) Whoa-ho! (muskets firing) NARRATOR: How did ordinary Americans use this technology to win their freedom? (cannon fire) KEAGLE: You want to be hitting that same spot, again and again and again. (fires) I've never experienced or seen anything like this. ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: "Revolutionary War Weapons." Right now, on "NOVA." ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: April 19, 1775, Massachusetts. Tensions between the British and the American colonists are at a boiling point. (men calling in distance) ♪ ♪ A moment that's commemorated even 250 years later. ♪ ♪ (men calling in distance, talking softly) A silversmith named Paul Revere has spread word that 700 British troops are marching from Boston to Concord. Their mission? Seize an American stockpile of weapons and supplies to stop a revolution before it begins. But as the British pass through Lexington, they are stopped by around 80 militiamen. ♪ ♪ (men calling) One of them is 36-year-old farmer John Robbins. READER: Sometime before sunrise, there suddenly appeared a number of the king's troops, about 1,000. NARRATOR: The militia and the British are under orders not to fire. (shouting) NARRATOR: But within minutes, shots ring out. (muskets firing) The skirmish sparks a war that lasts eight brutal years and leads to the establishment of the United States of America. It's said that in war, history is written by the victors. In the story of the American Revolution, the colonial forces are often portrayed as plucky heroes standing alone, armed with inferior technology, against the most powerful nation on Earth. But the truth is far more complex. ♪ ♪ Now, with modern insight, we can reach a better understanding of what it was like to stand in the line of fire, armed with the weapons of the day. This image of the Battle of Lexington, engraved months later, is based on eyewitness accounts. It reveals some of the true cost of the colonists' fight for freedom. Americans lie dead and wounded, and the British are using the most common weapon of the Revolutionary War, the smoothbore musket. (men yelling, muskets firing) Today, the musket is seen as crude and inaccurate, especially when compared to modern guns. But is that true? At Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York, historic firearms researcher Joel Bohy is finding out how effective the musket was on the battlefield. BOHY: So what we've got here is a British Pattern 1756 Long Land musket, more commonly known as the Brown Bess. The Brown Bess begins use in about 1730, and this type of gun would have been the workhorse of the British Army through the 18th century into the 19th century. It was an extremely important gun to building the British Empire, and used through the American Revolution. NARRATOR: Manufactured in the British Isles, each Brown Bess is made up of around 50 individual pieces. The 46-inch barrel is forged from a single piece of iron, heated to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, then beaten and welded into shape. The inside is reamed and polished to remove rough edges, resulting in a smooth internal bore. The stock fashioned from walnut because it is less prone to splitting. The final step: assemble the metal components, including the flintlock mechanism and trigger, to make the finished musket. To load it, the soldier starts with a paper cartridge, about a third of an ounce of premeasured gunpowder and a lead ball enclosed in the wrapper. BOHY: Take the tail. Bite it off. Pour some powder into the pan. More gunpowder down the barrel, with a musket ball. And... (ramrod tapping) We ram that cartridge home. And the gun's loaded and ready to fire. NARRATOR: It's cumbersome. The process can take 15 to 20 seconds, and must feel like an eternity in battle. The musket would seem primitive to anyone familiar with the sophistication of a modern rifle. BOHY: So, here we have the Lee-Enfield No. 1, commonly used in World War I and through World War II, and is a good representation of a modern gun. NARRATOR: Here, the loading process has been made easier with a self-contained, primed, metallic cartridge. BOHY: We've got a brass casing, a primer, which sets off the powder inside, and it fires a jacketed lead bullet, which is a lot different than the Brown Bess. NARRATOR: This .303-caliber round, or .303 of an inch, is also half the diameter of the .69-caliber musket ball. With a magazine that holds ten rounds, the Lee-Enfield can fire multiple shots in the time it takes to load a single musket ball, which is a big advantage in combat. BOHY: The bolt is pushed forward. It's chambered for a round now. It can fire. ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: But for Joel, the best way to assess the musket is not by comparing it to modern weapons, but by testing its effectiveness in battle 250 years ago. To gain a better understanding, Joel's team will fire at a ballistic gelatin block designed to replicate human tissue, providing valuable insight into how different projectiles can affect a person's body. With the aid of a slow-motion camera, he'll also try to answer a question: how damaging could a musket shot be? Finally, he will measure the speed each round exits the barrel, known as the muzzle velocity, using a chronograph. Marksman Jay Waller will be firing the guns. First up, the musket, with the .69-caliber ball. (fires) Pulling the trigger instantly sets off a chain reaction in the flintlock mechanism. (musket fires) A stone flint strikes a steel hammer. The impact creates sparks, which ignites the priming powder in the pan. This ignition passes through a small hole and sets off the gunpowder inside the barrel. The gas pressure produced here propels the round out of the gun. (bang echoes) On inspection, it's a direct hit. You can see where it traveled right through the block and came out the other side. NARRATOR: Reviewing the footage, they can see the horrific damage caused. BOHY: Wow. You just see that ball zip right through. Look at the cavitation in the gel from that .69-caliber ball. NARRATOR: When the ball moves through the block, it displaces the gel around it, creating a cavity. This is known as cavitation, similar to what would happen to living human tissue, devastating to bones and internal organs. BOHY: The men on Lexington Green knew how deadly these weapons were, but they never had the opportunity to see the damage in the way that we're seeing it now. ♪ ♪ Wow. Wow. Yeah, certainly gives... MAN: Right. ...a whole different appreciation and horror for what happened. BOHY: Yeah, yeah. NARRATOR: On April 19, 1775, one of the Lexington militiamen who feels the destructive power of the smoothbore musket is farmer John Robbins. READER: The foremost of the three officers ordered their men, saying, "Fire, by God, fire." Being wounded, I fell. ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: The shot enters his back, passes through his body, and shatters his jaw. In total, ten militiamen are wounded and eight killed. The musket is clearly deadly. So why do we see it as a primitive weapon? Likely because of what later guns can do. Joel demonstrates this with the modern rifle. (fires) WALLER: Oh! Whoa! Look at that. (shot echoing) You can see the smoke from the bullet. NARRATOR: The modern rifle's power is far more terrifying, but what does the data reveal? Using the chronograph, Joel and Jay compare muzzle velocities. On the Enfield, that is 2,314 feet per second, whereas the musket is 845 feet per second, so there's a big difference between the two guns. But you can really see the velocity when you look at the ballistics gelatin blocks. (fires) NARRATOR: The higher velocity of the modern rifle's bullet means it carries substantially more energy. When it penetrates the block, much of this is transferred to the gel, causing it to lift into the air. With a muzzle velocity nearly three times the musket's, the data proves that the musket is much less powerful. But what makes the rifle bullet have such a high projectile speed? When the trigger is pulled on the modern rifle, the charge is ignited within the self-contained cartridge. The vast majority of the explosive force is transmitted to the bullet, propelling it. The bullet travels flush against the barrel, and, with a more aerodynamic shape, moves cleanly through the air, retaining its power for longer. ♪ ♪ But when it comes to the musket, 18th-century gunpowder is less efficient than the modern equivalent. Its smoothbore barrel is also slightly larger than the ball it fires. This means the ball bounces down the barrel and allows gases to escape around it when the gunpowder is ignited, resulting in less energy being transferred to the ball. Being larger, rounder, and less aerodynamic than the modern bullet, it is further slowed by air resistance. But perhaps the musket's biggest weakness is its relative inaccuracy. The best way to demonstrate this is to see what a skilled marksman can do with a modern gun. BOHY: So here we're going to do a test with a modern rifle and the Brown Bess, or the musket, at 100 yards. NARRATOR: First, the Lee-Enfield. (fires) (shot echoing) ♪ ♪ At this distance, it's a great shot. Now Jay tests the accuracy of the Brown Bess. The musket shot at 100 yards. (fires) NARRATOR: There's no new impact. (musket fires) (fires) No matter how many times they try. Should we take a walk down and look at it? All right, so, this shot missed the target. ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: Why did it miss? One key reason is the difficulty of holding the musket steady. WALLER: It's interesting, because it's only a matter of milliseconds between the time that the flash and the charge in the pan is ignited, and it ignites the charge. But that fraction of a second is enough to lose and go off-sight. Yeah, you can move the, move the gun a little bit from the time you pull the trigger till the time it actually goes off. NARRATOR: This, plus all the factors that make it less powerful, means the smoothbore musket is also less accurate. (guns firing in distance, people calling in background) Despite this, we know from written accounts that facing musket fire was not for the faint of heart. To compensate for any inaccuracy, armies during the Revolutionary War relied on a lethal tactic. (man shouts order, muskets fire) Massed volley fire. By standing in rows and firing multiple lead balls at their enemy, they made up for the musket's lack of precision, making it very dangerous when used en masse. ♪ ♪ After the April 19 clash at Lexington, the British continue on to Concord, where they are attacked by 400 militiamen and forced to retreat, leaving hundreds dead and wounded. ♪ ♪ Soon, what began as a skirmish turns into all-out war. (men yelling) ♪ ♪ Following the American colonies' declaration of independence in July 1776, the war spreads from the land to the sea. Some 200 British warships, with 32,000 musket-wielding troops, arrive in New York. From here, they rapidly deploy into battle. The Americans are outnumbered and outgunned, so they begin working on a plan to blow up the British warships. In the United Kingdom, military historian Mike Loades is investigating one of the war's most audacious weapons. LOADES: This is a model of the first combat submarine. Now, I say "model" because the original doesn't exist. All we have is a few hints and clues from subsequent writings. NARRATOR: The writings come from American inventor David Bushnell. READER: The external shape of the submarine vessel bore some resemblance to two upper tortoise shells of equal size joined together. NARRATOR: It was later nicknamed "The Turtle." LOADES: First, you've got the overall shape. It's using the technology of a barrel. It's thick oak staves bound together with iron hoops. It's not quite barrel-shaped, though, and the reason for that is because you need space inside for an operator to sit, so that's going to broaden it in the middle, and you need space at the top for a hatch, for the operator to get in. At first glance, it immediately reminds you of a space capsule. But what it is, in fact, is a time capsule, a time capsule of contemporary technologies. You've got these pedals here, so the operator is pedaling away-- this is powered by pedal power-- and they are driving a propeller. NARRATOR: The concept of the propeller dates back to Greek mathematician Archimedes. His Archimedes screw famously moved water using a spiral blade inside a tube. Bushnell took this concept and located a blade on the outside of his Turtle. This is thought to be one of the first practical applications of a propeller. Along with a rudder, the Turtle has all the components needed to maneuver on the surface. A particular feature on the outside of the vessel is this hatch at the top here. It's got these watertight windows, so he has got some natural light inside. Then, above there, these strange-looking things are really snorkels, so that when it's above water, it's fully ventilated. NARRATOR: Using the windows, the operator could maneuver on the surface to locate and position the Turtle next to a ship. It is then ready to descend, by filling the area at the base of the vessel, known as the bilges. To do that, the operator kicks a lever. LOADES: This will flood the bilges down there with water. NARRATOR: Under the surface, a second propeller is used to lower or raise the Turtle. Once submerged in darkness, the operator only has two instruments for guidance. LOADES: This is a barometer. It has a little cork in it, and each of these marks on the glass tube represents a fathom, that's about six feet. So as he sees the cork bobbing down, he knows he's going down another six feet. How can he see that underwater? Because it's been covered with a fungus called foxfire, which is luminous-- it glows in the dark. And over here is a compass, which, again, the needle on the compass has been coated with this luminous fungus, so he can read his heading. NARRATOR: The Turtle is designed to move into position armed with a bomb to blow up its target. LOADES: So, assuming that we've now got to the right depth, we now need to attach the payload, and that's this crank here. This crank operates that drill at the top, and that bores its way up into the hull of a ship. NARRATOR: The drill is attached to the bomb by a rope. Once connected, the Turtle detaches itself, leaving the explosive secured to the ship. LOADES: And now you've got to get out of here, so you, you pedal away. When you want to surface, you use these two hand pumps. Yet more exertion to save your life, pumping away to get that water out of the bilges. But my goodness, that's a heck of a lot of work to get to that stage. NARRATOR: Employed to carry out this dangerous mission, 27-year-old American Ezra Lee. The plan: drive into New York Harbor and blow up the British flagship, HMS Eagle. But how could Ezra Lee attach a bomb big enough to sink the British ship and get away safely? Inventor David Bushnell's writings provide some clues, allowing pyrotechnics expert John Hargreaves to figure out how it was supposed to happen. HARGREAVES: I've rigged this as a demonstration. This is pretty much the size of the bomb that would have been on the Turtle. That holds the gunpowder? HARGREAVES: Correct. 150 pounds. How do we get a spark to it? HARGREAVES: Well, in the references to Bushnell's machine, they show a flintlock mechanism. So this little pocket pistol? Correct. Which has got this flintlock here. So, that flint strikes that... Yes. ...which creates the spark. NARRATOR: The pistol's muzzle is screwed into the barrel. When it's fired, it will ignite the gunpowder. But Ezra Lee would need time to escape before it exploded. Bushnell had a plan. READER: Within the magazine was an apparatus constructed to run any proposed length of time under 12 hours. HARGREAVES: This is a specialist clock. It is a very early 19th-century version, actually, but is the nearest thing I could find to the right mechanism. NARRATOR: The mechanism John thinks Bushnell used comes from a period pocket watch. HARGREAVES: The pocket watch had been around at the beginning of the 17th century. It was a pretty rare thing, and they were all watches like this. The clock is going to count down to zero. When it gets to zero, it pulls a lever which I have attached to the trigger mechanism of my pistol. So it pulls the trigger and fires the gun. (winding) LOADES: This is absolutely ingenious, John. HARGREAVES: I'm going to set it to a minute to. (clock ticking softly) Can you hear it ticking? We have a ticking bomb. Yeah, this is ticking... (bursts) Whoa-ho! Look at that! (chuckling) Excellent! Proof of concept! Yes. NARRATOR: The timer for the bomb was set to 30 minutes, and sealed in a watertight casing. The countdown would begin when the bomb detached from the Turtle. READER: This apparatus could not possibly move till, by casting off the magazine from the vessel, it was set in motion. ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: To test the gunpowder bomb underwater, they use a modern firing mechanism for safety. When Bushnell first tested the bomb, he did so with varying amounts of gunpowder. For safety, John is only using five pounds. Ezra Lee was carrying 150. NARRATOR: At 11:00 p.m. on September 6, 1776, after being launched into the water from a whaleboat, Lee starts his mission. Even though this is a scaled-down test, John is taking all the necessary precautions. Ezra Lee is facing the real risk that the bomb could fail to detonate, or, worse, explode too early, killing him instantly. For over two exhausting hours, with the constant risk of being spotted, he navigates toward the British ship. Upon reaching it, he begins his descent, dropping close to 30 feet below the surface, with the bomb. (explosion pounds) (Hargreaves chortles) There she blows! (explosion pounds in slow motion) (explosion pounds) That's just five pounds? Yes-- five pounds of gunpowder. The... The bomb they're dealing with was 30 times that magnitude. (explosion pounds) NARRATOR: A detonation that large would have been catastrophic. (explosion pounds in slow motion) The wooden hull of a ship offers less resistance to the bomb's explosive force than the denser water around it. It would have just ripped through the bottom of the boat. Instant destruction. Yeah. (explosion pounds) NARRATOR: But HMS Eagle is not blown up. After making his descent, Ezra Lee is unable to attach the bomb. READER: He went under the ship and attempted to fix the wood screw, but struck, as he supposes, a bar of iron. NARRATOR: At this crucial moment, running out of air, he abandons the mission. In a later attempt, the boat carrying the sub is sunk by British gunfire. This is the end of the Turtle. LOADES: I have absolutely no doubt that if it had been successful, and if it had been repeatable to scale, if they'd built many more Turtles, and they had destroyed the British fleet, it would have shortened the war by years. The war would have been over in months. (men shouting, muskets firing) NARRATOR: Following the failure of the Turtle, the war grinds on, with neither side securing a strategic advantage. But, in 1777, the tide starts to turn. Now, with access to more weapons and 13,000 troops, the Americans achieve a decisive victory at the Battle of Saratoga. Both armies are using muskets, but there's another weapon on the battlefield bringing its own advantages and weaknesses: the long rifle. Developed in the early 1700s by German and Swiss immigrants, the long rifle was designed as a highly accurate hunting gun. ♪ ♪ After the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, the Americans quickly set up sharpshooting rifle units. At Saratoga, it is claimed one of these units, Morgan's Riflemen, plays a crucial role in securing the American victory. This isn't the first time Morgan's Sharpshooters have been celebrated. One newspaper in 1775 wrote... READER: Yesterday, the company were drawn out to show the gentlemen of the town their dexterity in shooting. A clapboard with a mark the size of a dollar was put up, few shot being made that were not close to or in the paper. NARRATOR: The report also suggests the long rifle is much more accurate than the musket. But is that true? BOHY: This test is going to be for accuracy. We're going to be shooting at that melon 60 yards downrange with a long rifle. NARRATOR: Even before it's fired, there is a visible difference that gives it an advantage over the musket. BOHY: The benefit of the rifle is, it has front and rear sights, while the musket only has a front sight. It's going to help with the accuracy of the gun. ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: Having two sights allows for more precise alignment, providing two points of reference, enabling the shooter to more effectively maintain focus on the target. Is this ready? BOHY: Yeah, he's going to go now. (fires) NARRATOR: Having never fired the long rifle before, Jay just misses the melon. But now he has his mark, and adjusts his aim. (fires) (fires in slow motion) ♪ ♪ Yes! (chuckles) ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: It's a direct hit. But why is it so accurate? The answer lies in the name, the rifled barrel. Forged by specialist gunsmiths, the iron barrel is bored to include spiral grooves, known as rifling, on the inside surface. This changes how the ball behaves. When fired, the ball engages with the grooves, causing it to spin around its longitudinal axis. This spinning motion gives the projectile angular momentum, helping it resist external forces like air resistance and maintain a straighter path. The result? The ball remains stable in flight over longer distances, significantly enhancing accuracy. Combined with improved sights and a smaller, tight-fitting ball, which travels at a higher velocity, the long rifle is a formidable sharpshooting weapon. But there are also disadvantages: a slower loading time, with the long barrel being cumbersome, and the small ball needing firm positioning. BOHY: If you're in combat, you need to load and fire as quickly as you possibly can. With a rifle, it's going to be, you know, one shot or two shots a minute, compared to the four you can get with the musket. NARRATOR: Meaning this symbol of American patriotism and success is particularly vulnerable during reloading, leaving a soldier defenseless and open to attack from bladed weapons. ♪ ♪ Following the American success at Saratoga in 1777, the Revolutionary War enters a new phase. A year later, the French officially join the American cause, bringing much-needed troops and supplies. Some Indigenous communities are also playing a role in the war. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson refers to them as "merciless Indian savages." But their relationships with the colonists and the crown are complex. Both sides are seeking to recruit them. Historian of Indigenous Eastern Woodlands Fallon Burner specializes in this often-untold story of the war. BURNER: Native people were involved in the American Revolution since the beginning, since Lexington and Concord. Native people fought on both sides of this conflict. That might be the American side, that might be the British side, that might be remaining sort of neutral. These decisions are based on what is best for that Native nation and the trajectory that they are on. NARRATOR: In a conflict often characterized by small skirmishes, whoever Indigenous people side with, their impact is felt, often with the help of a deadly axe, the tomahawk. Fallon is meeting up with Eastern Woodlands weapons expert Russell Reed to discuss Indigenous people's weaponry and its role in the war. BURNER: I know that the word for tomahawk actually comes from this area here in Tidewater, Virginia. Can you tell us a little bit about the kinds of tomahawks that settlers would have been seeing when they first arrived here? So, when the English first arrived, you're going to see the tribes from Virginia, and really, throughout much of the Eastern Woodlands, using stone-bladed axes like this to clear brush and fields, to work on canoes, build houses, and also, certainly, as a weapon when the time required it. However, after the English, French, Spanish, Dutch, and other colonial powers arrive, rapidly, you're going to see this replaced bit by bit with iron and steel versions of the tomahawk that we more think of nowadays. NARRATOR: With Europeans came new technology, including ironmongery and steelwork. Early on, colonial traders realized they could exchange metal goods, including ax-heads, for items needed in Europe. REED: The advantages to this are several. Stone tomahawks worked for thousands of years. There's no issue in using them. However, the iron and steel ones can be brought to a little bit of a finer edge for more effective cutting, and this can be purchased or traded for at fairly cheap cost-- in some cases for a couple of deerskins. It just makes a lot of sense to trade for scores of these rather than make stone versions that are a little heavier and not quite as sharp. NARRATOR: Over time, metal tomahawks transformed, taking on new shapes with intricate decoration. Some even contained pipes that could be smoked. But the tomahawk remained a weapon for close combat. REED: You're going to see a sort of a system of weapons. You're going to have your long-range weapon, so that's going to be your longbow, your rifle, or very commonly, this Indian trade gun, musket. NARRATOR: Once in battle, the system is deployed rapidly. You're going to be leveling that at your enemy... ...firing... (gunshot echoes faintly) ...and then, while your enemy is hopefully reloading, you're going to see this long-range weapon tossed to the side, immediately drawing tomahawk and your knife. And so you're going to see the knife in one hand, tomahawk in the other, and actually closing in on your enemy. ♪ ♪ Period sources routinely talk about the fact that this is actually going to be brought aiming for the head. It certainly can be an effective weapon against the body, but layers of thick clothing, and the fact that this is a fairly light weapon, you're going to see a lot more targeting of the head, the knife being something you can use to follow up or possibly to block a strike. It's quickly either brought to the side or straight down. You can see it sort of cleaved pretty much right through the center of it, like that, and then it can even be brought back in the opposite direction. ♪ ♪ That would be terrifying if that was my head. (both laugh) Now, you can imagine this on a battlefield with hundreds of warriors, muskets going off, arrows flying everywhere, and then warriors closing the distance with devastating effect on their enemies. NARRATOR: Against an enemy, especially slow-loading riflemen, the tomahawk could be highly effective. ♪ ♪ So we definitely see a lot in movies or other cultural depictions of Native warriors throwing and letting go of their tomahawk to hit a target. Mm. How viable and actionable do you think that is? It's likely that actually throwing your tomahawk in combat would be incredibly uncommon. This weapon simply doesn't weigh a lot, and you would have to match the rotations to hit your enemy perfectly, and you're incredibly limited on range. It's certainly going to be more effective used in the hand. So you throw it, you've gotten rid of it, then you don't have it to use anymore. Yes, you have now-- unless you've been incredibly lucky and successful, you have now disarmed yourself, given your enemy your main weapon. So how much of a difference do you think the tomahawk made in the revolution? It really is such an effective hand-to-hand weapon that you're going to see colonial forces, militia, and the British all carrying tomahawks, as well. And so we do get period accounts in the revolution where the tomahawk comes into play in a big way, with lots of hand-to-hand fighting, which can turn the tide of the battle one direction or the other, commonly leading to the victory of whoever is employing it first and most effectively. ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: After six brutal years, the war takes a sudden turn. In 1781, in a surprise move, nearly 18,000 American and French troops corner 8,000 British in Yorktown, Virginia. (muskets firing, men shouting) Outnumbered and surrounded, the British are forced to dig in. Pitched battles and skirmishes are out. Now this becomes a siege war. In this painting, "The Siege of Yorktown," the artist captures the defensive earthworks built by both sides and the powerful weapon intended to defeat them, the cannon. (cannon firing) The contest between these earthworks and the cannon would become one of the most iconic in history. But which one would come out on top? At Yorktown today, historian Marvin-Alonzo Greer is finding out. ♪ ♪ GREER: So what you're seeing here is a reconstruction of the 18th-century earthworks that the British created. This foliage here, this greenery, would not have been here at the time. It would have all been dirt and earth and palisades here, these wooden spikes sticking out of the ground. NARRATOR: In just six weeks, the British construct a system of fortified earthworks. GREER: These defenses would have been built by a mixture of people, some by soldiers in the British Army, but the vast majority of these defenses would have been built by freedom-seekers. NARRATOR: Before the Revolutionary War, all 13 colonies practiced slavery. During the conflict, many enslaved people are brought to the battlefield, often as laborers. Some fight on the American side voluntarily with the hope of freedom. The British also offered them liberty if they joined their ranks. Thousands take this opportunity at Yorktown. They've become known as freedom-seekers. GREER: Most of their names are lost to history, but we do have names of at least two: Eve, from Williamsburg, and her son George. They were enslaved by Peyton Randolph and his wife, Betty Randolph. Betty Randolph writes in 1781 some of her enslaved people, including Eve and George, have gone to the enemy, right here to Yorktown. NARRATOR: In the painting of the siege, there are clues about how the defenses are built. Piles of strange-shaped objects lie next to passing troops, but what are they? Revolutionary War expert Matthew Keagle has built three examples. KEAGLE: So these are called gabions. Basically, big wicker baskets. But they don't have a bottom or a top, so you can move them where you need to go, you can dump earth into them, and they're going to hold it there. NARRATOR: Gabions have been used in defensive fortifications since the time of the Ancient Egyptians. During the Revolutionary War, and with so many American towns lacking stone wall defenses, gabions are commonplace. We're just looking at this cross-section of the works. So imagine this continuing through us and past us to make a whole wall nine feet or more deep. NARRATOR: With ditches dropping no less than six feet and ramparts of equivalent height covered in spiked palisades, the earthworks at Yorktown present a formidable obstacle. But they had to face down the cannon. Originating in China 800 years ago, the first experimental cannon were made of bamboo. By the 1770s, the most expensive and lightweight are made of bronze, but the more common ones are heavier, larger, and made of iron. KEAGLE: This is the most powerful weapons system known at this time. The works at Yorktown are all designed around the capabilities of these weapons, either to prevent incoming fire from damaging people and equipment, or as platforms to fire artillery from. NARRATOR: At Yorktown, the Americans and French bring 100 cannon to the battle. The British have 250 cannon, but not nearly as much ammunition. To defeat earthworks, artillerymen used solid iron shot. KEAGLE: Right here, we're working with a French four-pounder. So that's not the weight of the barrel. That's the weight of the shot this is going to fire. So a solid iron ball weighing four pounds is going to come hurtling out the muzzle of this cannon downrange. NARRATOR: For this cannon, there are five crew members. Each has a specific role. KEAGLE: So what we see up here is, on that front right, he's got the sponge rammer. NARRATOR: The sponger ensures the cannon is safe to fire. By plunging the barrel with water and pulling it out with the vent closed, a vacuum extinguishes any embers from the previous shot. KEAGLE: So when he pulls that out... (vacuum pops) ...we get that sound, which is evidence of the vacuum inside the tube, because if you put a round or cartridge in there afterwards and there's even the smallest ember, that could set that off. NARRATOR: Another crew member passes the cartridge, which holds the gunpowder, to the loader. After inserting this, the loader then adds wadding, which holds the cartridge against the breech of the cannon. Next, the iron ball, followed by more wadding. KEAGLE: Then the sponge rammer is actually going to ram down this whole mass into the breech, because for the gunpowder to work correctly, to get the most force possible, it needs to be compacted into as small a space as possible. Now, at the rear, at the vent of the weapon, they're going to take a small spike, drive that through the vent hole, through the cartridge, opening up the gunpowder inside there. NARRATOR: With the cartridge open, the gunner pours additional gunpowder into the vent, and then inserts a fuse. Finally, the commander who aims the gun prepares to fire. At Yorktown, the closest the American and French guns get to the British lines is just 200 yards away. Fire. ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: Within an instant of lighting the fuse, the gunpowder inside the barrel ignites. The gases produced rapidly build to create pressure between the ball and the base of the barrel. In milliseconds, this pressure propels the ball out of the cannon. (fires) (fires in slow motion) (cannonball pounds) KEAGLE: Came around here. Oh! Look at that! Did it just plunge right through the gabion? Yeah. See, see right there. That shattered sapling, and then we've gone right into here. That's our second hole, isn't it? Yep. KEAGLE: It's dislodged a fair amount of earth, but they're still holding. (cannonball pounds) GREER: The fact that it passed through the earth, the saplings, and into a second one... And into the next one. That's some power. That really is. Because this is so loosely constructed, this isn't like firing into a stone wall, so the nature of this defense has helped it to kind of almost heal itself. NARRATOR: Earthworks could effectively withstand a single strike. (cannon fires) But at Yorktown, the Americans and the French are firing up to 3,500 rounds every day, with some cannon shot six times the weight of this four-pounder. (Greer talking indistinctly) KEAGLE: We got the palisade! Right on target. Bullseye. (cannonball pounds) NARRATOR: The second shot is inches from the first hit. Your intention is, you want to be hitting that same spot again and again and again and again, ultimately battering down that wall. Oh, yeah, that... (fires) (cannonball pounds) (fires) (cannonball pounds) NARRATOR: After six tightly grouped shots, they inspect the damage. I have never experienced or seen anything like this. (laughs) With that earth just literally sucking up all of that artillery fire. Um, the accuracy is amazing. But it's this kind of consistency that is ultimately going to win you something like the siege of Yorktown. NARRATOR: Over nine days of bombardment, the Americans and French fire an incredible 15,000 cannon rounds. Finally, after three weeks of siege, mounting losses, and low supplies, the British surrender, ending the last major battle of the Revolutionary War. As for the freedom-seekers who helped build these defenses, like Eve and her son George, when smallpox breaks out in the fort during the siege, the British expel them. Threatened once again with enslavement, most take their chances between the opposing armies in no man's land. (cannon firing) Eve escapes, but after a reward is issued, she is captured. GREER: We don't know what happens to George. Yeah. Her son probably died of smallpox or in no man's land, but Eve is sold for "her bad behavior," for going to and seeking her freedom. "Harrowing" is the word that continues to come to mind through all of this. Exactly. NARRATOR: It would be another 84 years before slavery is abolished throughout the United States. After the siege of Yorktown, the British realize the war can no longer be won. After eight years, and 57,000 killed in action on both sides combined, they recognize the independence of the United States of America. This freedom was only possible thanks to the people who fought and the extraordinary technology they used. KEAGLE: As an American, this is the foundation of the United States. We're a relatively young country, we're one that was born out of eight years of struggle, of a vicious war. BOHY: Going out and shooting these weapons can give you a much greater understanding of the battles, how they were fought, how they were won and lost, and it enables me to have a much better understanding of the war itself. Back then, this was cutting-edge technology, this was experimentation, this was original thought. Indigenous people were involved in this conflict since the very beginning. So was their technology. The tomahawk is really this unifying factor here that ties Indigenous history and American history together. GREER: Whether people are inventing technology or using the technology, an instrument of war can also be used as an instrument of freedom. And I think we as humans can learn a lot from this time period, because, just like our lives today, there's good and bad happening on all sides, and it's really up to we, the users of technology, to determine how our future will be paved. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

Woman, voice-over: "Stranger, I find myself lost." ♪ "Let us watch this new age gather Overhead." "Let's see what rains onto unaccustomed skin." [Camera shutter clicking] "This land you've sought is peopled with enemies and kin." "You'll learn to read the whole long story..." [Camera shutter clicking] "written on skin." "We passengers wait. Our restless waiting forms an island." "One woman stands, sings. Her music enters through my skin." "Stranger, you're the words to a hymn I've only ever hummed. Come. Let's erase the distance between skin and skin." ♪ David Rubenstein, voice-over: Historical symbols have a lot to say about who we were and who we have become as a people in this country. It's hard to argue that there's a more iconic symbol of America today than the Statue of Liberty. Man: We recognize the Statue of Liberty today as the symbol of the United States of America. In a very real way, the statue has replaced Uncle Sam as the symbol of American life, American democracy. It's also become a commercial symbol. Kraut: And the Statue of Liberty has appeared in movies. Man: Oh, OK, missy. This ain't California. We don't go for this stuff here. Come on. [Yells] ### damn you all to hell! Man: The statue remains a powerful symbol. It says something to everyone throughout the world. Ronald Reagan: It's good to know that Ms. Liberty is still giving life to the dream of a new world where people of every nation could live together as one. Man: For people around the world, the Statue of Liberty stands for freedom, which many of them, unfortunately, don't enjoy. Newsreel announcer: The Statue of Liberty is a welcome sight. Woman: People have latched on to the Statue of Liberty as a symbol for immigration. Man: In many ways, the Statue of Liberty has always been aspirational. The possibility of America, not always the actual practice of America. Rubenstein, voice-over: When I was a kid, my parents took me to the Statue of Liberty many times and would always try to explain to me why it was so important. The Statue of Liberty represented the story of America opening up its doors and becoming a nation of immigrants. But recently, that story has taken a turn. The battle over the Trump administration's zero tolerance policy on immigration is intensifying... Reporter: The Statue of Liberty says, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." I don't wanna get off into a whole thing about history here, but the Statue of Liberty is a symbol of liberty enlightening the world. It's a symbol of American liberty lighting the world. The poem that you're referring to was added later. It's not actually part of the original Statue of Liberty. Rachel Scott: And the Biden administration is facing a surge at the U.S.-Mexico border. The number of migrants is on track to reach a 20-year high. [Ship's horn blowing] Rubenstein, voice-over: I'm curious why the statue has endured as such a popular symbol of America and why lately it's become a lightning rod for political debate. ♪ Rubenstein: When you come here, do you see people from all over New York, all over the world, typically? Berenson: All over the world. All over the world. So, before tourism was cut because of COVID, at least half the people you hear are speaking foreign languages. I take my students pretty regularly, and we do-- we do an excursion to the Statue of Liberty. And what is their impression of the Statue of Liberty when they go? They're amazed. They--for one thing, they have no idea how beautiful it is. From close up. You know, you really have to see it close up. Rubenstein: So, you are an expert on the Statue of Liberty. Is that a fair summary? I think I could say that. Yeah. Man: Can I ask you to sit up a bit? David, can you sit up a little, too? You know, you have two 72-year-old guys. Yeah, right. And it's hard for us to sit up straight because you're kind of-- you're slumping a little bit when you get older. Yeah. Well, you need a stronger back. Right. Yeah. Jewish backs don't stand as strong. There you go. OK, you ready? [Clears throat] So, what was the biggest surprise that you learned in your research? Boy. Well, I guess the biggest surprise is that the Statue of Liberty changed meaning regularly. It's not a stable thing. [Fireworks popping] Berenson: Early on, it was sort of a generic liberty symbol and the bid for a renewal of Franco-American relations. Later, it got associated with immigration and a welcome to immigrants. But it took a long time for the Statue of Liberty to become a symbol of immigration. By the time the Statue of Liberty went up in 1886, immigration was already becoming very controversial. Huge numbers of immigrants were pouring in from Europe and mainly parts of Europe where immigrants hadn't come from before-- Southern and Eastern Europe. And there was a lot of criticism that these people are "the riffraff of Europe. We don't really want them." And the first idea that government officials had was that it was to locate the immigration processing center on the same island as the Statue of Liberty. And that produced an uproar. All kinds of stuff about the Statue of Liberty as a symbol of the purity of the United States. "How dare you dump all these European refugees at her feet?" And so, you put it next door on Ellis Island. ♪ Rubenstein: When did they stop using Ellis Island as an immigration center? Caitlin Dickerson: By the thirties, Ellis Island was primarily a detention center. And then I think it was the mid-fifties when they shut it down completely. And then it was vacant for several years before they used it as a museum. So, from this building in Ellis Island, you can see the, uh, Statue of Liberty? Dickerson: Yeah. Wow. Definitely one of the most well-known icons in the United States, probably... Right. the most well-known. It's interesting. She is a very powerful symbol. You know, she's not in Central Park, she's not downtown. She's actually on the water literally welcoming people and holding up a torch as if to say, you know, "Come on in. I'll show you the way." I think the way that the statue looks and what it says just lends itself to this immigration narrative so easily that it was co-opted. Right. Shall we? ♪ Dickerson: What's interesting about these pictures to me is that they really showcase how difficult the immigration story is. So often it's glossed over and kind of romanticized in the way that we tell it. But you can see in people's faces-- I mean, they look exhausted, they look really run-down. And yet at the same time, you also see people who look like they wore their very best clothes... Right... to come to the United States. Right. Rubenstein: I can't imagine how those circumstances were on the boat. I assume they weren't exactly in first class. Right. Interestingly, today, when people have pictures taken of them, they generally smile. Yeah. But you don't see people smiling so much in these pictures. When you think about it, you've lived your whole life in a country and all of a sudden, you're picking up, taking whatever possession you have with you. You're going to another country you've never been to before. In some cases, you have no relatives there. It's a pretty daunting, uh, experience. And I don't know whether I would've done it in the same circumstances. I don't know whether I would have, either. I mean, immigrating, it often, it becomes the defining feature of a person's life, especially those who feel like they've done it because they have no other choice. Their immigration story becomes their-- the story of their life. Right. Coming from the French West Indies. Wow. Dickerson: Coming in what year? 1911. You don't really think about, uh, a lot of immigration from the French West Indies then, but... We don't. it obviously occurred. Rubenstein: So, why is it that Ellis Island became so famous? A lot of people came from, let's say, Latin America, Mexico, Asia, and not everybody who came from Europe came to Ellis Island. What is it about Ellis Island that became so famous? Ellis Island is very close to the Statue of Liberty, which is a very important symbol in our country's immigration history, and it was an incredibly busy port of entry. You know, at Ellis Island, there were years when more than a million immigrants were processed at one location. Those numbers are unheard of, even today, along the Southern border. It's a place where many, many, many Americans can trace their history to. And I think that's why it has such a powerful reputation. Now, when I was in school as a young boy, I remember my teacher saying we're a nation of immigrants, but is that right? I would say that we are a nation of immigrants, that we have larger numbers of immigrants than any other country in the world. And yet, exclusion is as much a part of our history as allowing people in and welcoming them. Rubenstein: What do you think the Statue of Liberty really symbolizes and really represents to Americans? I think the Statue of Liberty has had a lot of different meanings, from immigration and a welcome to immigrants to freedom during the Second World War in the face of fascism, but when the Statue of Liberty was first conceived, what it's supposed to symbolize is the abolition of slavery. Oh, wow. But nobody knows that story. Rubenstein, voice-over: I had never heard that the Statue of Liberty had ties to abolition and was curious about this surprising connection. Kraut: You know, David, one of the things that people often don't understand is the origins of the Statue of Liberty. If we take a look at the statue, there is a little piece of chain under the left foot of the statue. That's all you can see of what was originally the crushing of the chains of bondage by Ms. Liberty, which symbolized the ending of slavery. Kraut: The idea came out of the head of Edouard Laboulaye, who was a French expert in constitutionalism and politics, a great admirer of Abraham Lincoln, an advocate of emancipation. And after the assassination, he wanted a way to celebrate Lincoln's legacy and the emancipation of the slaves. And it's really quite fascinating to see the development of the concept of the statue and what happens to the chains of bondage, which had once been, at least in early representations, present in the hands of the statue, is reduced to the foot of the statue. Rubenstein: Wow. Rubenstein, voice-over: James Baldwin once said that history makes the present complete. I wanted to investigate more about the history of the statue's origins with my friend Lonnie Bunch, head of the Smithsonian Institution. Rubenstein: I did not know that the Statue of Liberty had any connection to abolition and Reconstruction. I thought I knew a lot about history, but I didn't know that. Lonnie Bunch: Yes. When the idea was conceived, it was a celebration of emancipation. But there was little attempt as the design evolved to continue to tell the story of abolitionism. And in a way, it is interesting that it's so high up that you rarely can see it even if you're looking for it. Bunch: I think you tell a great deal about a country by what it remembers. And monuments are a concrete way of remembering. You also learn a lot about a country by what it forgets. And I'm fascinated that where we are as a nation is really grappling with, What is good history? Um, what should we know? What should we remember? Bunch: The story of the initial conception is little known. The notion that the leader of the French Anti-Slavery Society really wanted to celebrate Abraham Lincoln and celebrate the abolition of slavery. Bunch: But over time, as people began to think about what the ultimate final design would be, abolitionism slowly, um, became less important. By 1886, the United States had given up on sort of bringing the North and South together, including African-Americans. The belief was that you eliminate them, the nation can come back together, you know, the notion of brother versus brother. And so, there wasn't a real interest to talk about slavery. So, this really became a symbol that was available to be embraced for other things. And Lady Liberty became a symbol of America being the beacon to the world. Rubenstein: As events unfolded, the design of the Statue of Liberty changed. Rather than chains, she was supposed to hold the Declaration of Independence. Whose idea was that? The sculptor. This was all about Bartholdi's vision. Rubenstein: So, it was Laboulaye's idea, but how did Mr. Bartholdi get involved? Kraut: Legend goes that at a dinner party in the summer of 1865, Laboulaye talked with a friend named Bartholdi about his idea, that he would like a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States and that it might be some kind of a statue. Rubenstein: Was he a well-known abolitionist in France? Kraut: Bartholdi, uh, was not a political operative. He was an artist. He loved large sculpture. At one point, he actually proposed a huge piece of sculpture that would straddle the Suez Canal. That project never got built. But he was somebody who liked very large pieces of sculpture, and the project intrigued him. Rubenstein, voice-over: I wanted to better understand what events in history could have so dramatically altered the meaning of one of the world's most iconic statues. The statue was designed and constructed in Paris, and one of France's leading historians has closely studied the shifting nature of symbols, including Lady Liberty. Man: This museum was inaugurated 90 years ago for the French colonial exhibit. The purpose was really to convince the French visitors that colonization was good, that it was something good for those being colonized. So, it was propaganda, obviously. But now, this museum is the national museum of immigration that opened 15 years ago. So, this building has a very different purpose from what it had 90 years ago. Historians such as myself have studied symbols, especially a highly visible monument such as the Statue of Liberty, in order to understand how a society becomes a society, how people feel from a given city or a given country. In France, there's no symbol that could be compared to the Statue of Liberty. That is why I and a few others are dreaming to build something, to have something. So, you're not suggesting that some people in the United States should take a collection up and build a Statue of Liberty in France as a way to thank France for building the Statue of Liberty in our country? What a great idea, David. You should think about it. You should be the, uh, Laboulaye of the 21st century. You know, that's a great idea. All right. I'm gonna think about it. Rubenstein: When the Statue of Liberty was proposed, were many people in France supportive of that? Ndiaye: In the mid-1860s, no one had heard of this project. It was too bizarre, in many ways too disconnected from the lives of most French people. So, it remained within a small circle of wealthy elitist dreamers. But it started to generate a wide interest in France, when the statue itself started to be built right in Paris, when the Parisians started to see the gigantic arms of the statue popping out of the Parisian skyline. So, the reality of it really struck the French, but this came so late in the whole process. What were the currents going through French politics in the 1860s and 1870s that would have led somebody to say there should be a Statue of Liberty in the United States? When Bartholdi and his friends met in 1865, they did so as to celebrate the end of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, but to Bartholdi and others, this had a wider meaning in some ways. It meant being free of the old bondage that existed in many countries. It has a highly symbolic dimension so that anyone can think of something that the statue has a kind of universal meaning, so, this statue is vague enough to please everyone. It is also vague enough to displease a lot of people. Rubenstein, voice-over: America's greatest symbol has its roots in a small town in France about 300 miles from Paris, where Bartholdi was born and first conceived of his vision for the statue. There's no better way to understand the statue's evolution than to go where it all began. ♪ So, this is the replica of the Statue of Liberty. It was erected here to honor Auguste Bartholdi. He was born in this city. Where this is now located appears to be a transportation and logistics center, because every truck coming by in the world seems to be here, but it looks exactly like the one in New York Harbor, down to the chains at the feet. And we can see them here very closely. Rubenstein: So, they erected a Statue of Liberty right in a traffic circle area of the city. Why did they do that? [Chuckles] Uh, uh, I prefer not to commend this decision because I don't think it is a very good decision. It would be better to develop the Museum of Bartholdi in Colmar, but it's my own, uh, impression. Rubenstein: Now, this museum was his original house. This is where he was born. Is that correct? Yeah, absolutely correct. Rubenstein: So, you've been in this museum many times? Belot: Yes, many times for my research to write my biography of Bartholdi. The museum opened in 1922. Rubenstein: And it operated until World War II? Belot: It was closed because of the German occupation, you see. And Bartholdi was a symbol of French patriotism. Rubenstein: So, in here we have the, uh, statue that was originally designed for the Suez Canal. Yes, right. In 1869, in fact. It was designed to be a lighthouse. But it was a model only because Isma'il Pasha, who was the khedive of Egypt, uh, has no more money to finance this statue, so... But this statue looks a little bit like the Statue of Liberty, doesn't it? Yes, absolutely. And after, this project has been reused for the Statue of Liberty in New York, in fact. Wow. And that right here is the first model of this? It is a very first model created in 1870. And the difference is the chain, you know, the chain. And after this model, you have the very first model, uh, with the tablet. It's new from this one, too. You have the chain and the tablet. Rubenstein: Very impressive. Yeah, yes. Rubenstein: Now, what are the chains designed to symbolize? Belot: It symbolizes the fight against authoritarianism, fight against monarchy. Rubenstein: Some people say the chains are designed to symbolize the end of slavery in the United States. Is that part of the symbolism as well? Yeah. Yeah, the chains themselves symbolize slavery and the broken chains, the end of slavery. But Bartholdi developed the idea, you see. Rubenstein: It was Laboulaye's idea to do something like this. Belot: Uh, yes. It was him who gave the idea one week after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln to imagine a very big symbol of the friendship between America and France. So, the idea was Laboulaye, but the realization was Bartholdi's. And Bartholdi was very inspired by the comparison between the French regime and the American regime. And at the time during the Second Empire with Napoleon III, it was not a very liberal regime. They wanted to fight for liberty, so, it has a political signification. But you can interpret it as you want. There is not only one interpretation, in fact. Why do you think some people think that the chains are more important in the statue than they are now when they're at her feet? Um, the Statue of Liberty has always inspired fake news, you see... [Chuckles] from the beginning to now. So, for me, it's fake news, you see. I see. You are free to imagine what you want to imagine. Rubenstein, voice-over: Bartholdi's biographer believes there was no intention to diminish the abolitionist symbolism by moving the chains under her foot. Rubenstein: There's a rare work that was recently discovered by the Metropolitan Museum of Art that may hold more clues. Ah. There she is. Rubenstein: So, there is a story that, uh, when the Statue of Liberty was being conceived, that the chains were a more important part of the Statue of Liberty as originally conceived. I think there is truth to that. I mean, nobody knows for sure. But if you look at other representations of liberty in France, for example, broken chains are a central part of those representations. So, it makes sense to think that something designed by a French sculptor like Bartholdi would also have those chains prominently displayed. ♪ Woman: This is a presentation drawing by Bartholdi of the Statue of Liberty illuminating the bay. Rubenstein: So, this is a number of years before the Statue of Liberty was actually built. Indeed. Yes. This is a drawing that was meant to inspire people. Um, they created this drawing with the idea of presenting this to the American people, who were supposed to pay for the pedestal. Rubenstein: Now, here you see some chains. Woman: Indeed. They were there quite visibly in her hand, and eventually they moved down to under her foot. And why do you think they were dropped? Woman: So, I spoke before about the American people being responsible for paying for the pedestal. And I think part of getting buy-in for people to want to do that was to maybe downsize the kind of political, the loaded meaning of the statue into something that was kind of more generic. That's a very important point. Basically, getting rid of the chains means excluding African-Americans from the statue... Speelberg: Yeah. from the meaning of the statue. So, constructing, uh, an idea of liberty that excluded African-Americans because it excluded the thing that symbolized their liberty, the broken chain. Rubenstein: Let's pretend for a moment that this was actually the version that was built where the chains symbolizing the breaking of the bonds of slavery had actually been in the left hand of the Statue of Liberty. Do you think that would have changed history in any way? Stovall: I think it could have. I think it would have made it much more difficult to exclude the idea of slave liberation from the broader American narrative of America as a land of liberty. And having a symbol so central to the United States symbolize slave liberation, as it would have done, would, I think, have placed the concerns of African-Americans much more centrally in American history. Rubenstein: As you look at the Statue of Liberty today, as an American, do you regard it as an important symbol of our country, or do you look at it as a flawed symbol of our country? I think it's both. I mean, I think it is an important symbol of our country. And it's a symbol of the ways in which freedom has often been entangled with whiteness. I don't think you can-- I would certainly not advocate getting rid of it, for example, because it's a major part of American history. And the changing images of it are a major part of American history. It's certainly important to me. It's important as a symbol of everything that is intrinsically interesting about America, right, both the good sides and the bad sides. And I think the fact that it does have this multiple kinds of symbolism to it, I think is really fascinating, so, let me just say I'm glad it's there. Rubenstein: Is the Statue of Liberty a symbol of the United States in your mind? Yes. Absolutely, absolutely. Why? Because so many people around the world and in this country see the United States, rightly, wrongly, as the central place of freedom, and so, the Statue of Liberty stands for that. I mean, it's just been so many things and what you often see is symbols changing over time because each historical era puts its own stamp on a monument or some symbol, and that's, I think, the way it should be. Rubenstein: When you see the Statue of Liberty now, what does it mean to you? Ndiaye: To me, it's powerfully related to immigration and to the fact that in spite of the fact that the U.S. are not the land of freedom for everyone, the statue remains a powerful symbol. Are you surprised at the way symbols sometimes change? For sure. Look at this, uh, monument where we are in. It was built to promote colonization, to symbolize the greatness of the French empire. And now it has a completely different meaning. We have the National Museum in the History of Immigration, which is, uh, the equivalent of Ellis Island in many ways with the purpose of, uh, promoting the history of immigration and convincing the French that immigration is as important in our country as it is in the United States. And the poem by Emma Lazarus played an important role as well as the migrants themselves who were having a look at the statue when miles offshore when arriving to New York, so, they started to make this powerful connection between the statue and their new life in the United States. Rubenstein: So, to what extent do you think the meaning of the entire Statue of Liberty has been changed by the words of Emma Lazarus? Woman: Emma Lazarus utterly changed the meaning of the statue. Uh, the idea of the statue was that it was a tribute to Franco-American friendship, to freedom, abolitionism, French republicanism. And Lazarus changed it in 14 lines of writing into a statue about immigration. How did Emma Lazarus get connected with the pedestal? Emma Lazarus was asked to contribute a poem to a portfolio of original writings that was going to be auctioned off in December of 1883 to raise money for the pedestal. Schor: It was called the Bartholdi Pedestal Fund. And Emma Lazarus at first said, "I don't write to order. I don't think I'm going to do this." But Emma Lazarus did write the poem, and it was auctioned. It was published in a small magazine and completely faded from view. Schor: She died in 1887, and in 1903, her friend Georgina Schuyler wanted to make a tribute to Emma Lazarus and decided to get the poem put on a plaque and put in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. And there it fades from view again. After World War I, there was this period of strong nativism and anti-immigrant feelings. And it was only in the following decade, the 1930s, that pro-immigrationists seized on her poem as a poem that was resonant, a poem that could open lectures, a poem that could be put on letterhead. And from thereon in, the poem sort of has steadily gained ground as a central poem for Americans. And I would add that the poem began as a kind of subversive poem. It's part of the period in which she's working for Russian Jewish refugees. So, she's talking about refugees, and Emma Lazarus was actually very disappointed in her attempts to raise money, uh, from American Jews for the refugees. So, what she did was generalize the appeal to an appeal to all Americans about all immigrants. Rubenstein: So, where are we now? Woman: We are in the stacks of the American Jewish Historical Society archive. Rubenstein: What's the most valuable thing in your collection? Well, that would be-- that would be hard for us to say, but we are certainly going to look at one of them. Rubenstein: So, this is from the Emma Lazarus collection? Woman: That is correct. Yes. This book is an original manuscript copy of Emma Lazarus' poems written in her own hand towards the very end of her life. So, she purchased this book, actually right here on 6th Avenue, and then, uh, decided to write down her own poems in the order in which we assume she found to be the most significant or meaningful to her. What was number one? It was "The New Colossus." Schor: She starts it with "The New Colossus." I just don't want to take that for granted. I mean, she felt that this was her most important poem and there was nothing else in the world to tell her that. She simply knew it for herself. Rubenstein: But, of course, when she wrote this, she didn't know that this poem would actually be on the Statue of Liberty. Is that right? No, not at all. I mean, uh, she wrote it, as she says here, to raise money for the pedestal. So, here's "The New Colossus," page one, number one. Schor: "Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, with conquering limbs astride from land to land..." Schor: "Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand "a mighty woman with a torch, "whose flame is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles." Tracy K. Smith: "From her beacon-hand "glows world-wide welcome. "Her mild eyes command the air-bridged harbor "that twin cities frame. "'Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!'" "cries she with silent lips. "'Give me your tired, your poor, "'your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. "'The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. "'Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door!'" Rubenstein, voice-over: Emma Lazarus seems to have had remarkable foresight. The power of her poem, combined with the proximity of what would become the main passageway for immigrants, redefined the statue and history. A site where immigrants stayed on Ellis Island, now closed to the public, holds clues to how they were treated here. Man: So, now we're leaving the museum and we're gonna go to, uh, something that not many people get to see, the baggage and dormitory building that had more facilities for people who were being kept more than one day, for--basically for food and lodging. Hnedak: OK. Now maybe it's time for the hardhat. OK. Hnedak: Here we go. ♪ Rubenstein: This is the dormitory. Hnedak: Well, we're probably in more of like a storage area right now. You see some historic photographs of how much baggage came through. And even these individuals had huge, you know, bales of things. Dickerson: I mean, they brought everything they had. No, they brought everything they could. It's not quite the same thing. Hnedak: We're gonna go up those stairs. So, careful here. Um, let me go first. OK. Here's the spot, so be careful. Hnedak: This is probably a dormitory room. Hnedak: So, they had music. There was two pianos here. There are a number of pianos in our collection, that none of them are in good shape. It's kind of tragic, but it's also kind of cool-looking. There was music all over the place. Dickerson: Really? Hnedak: Yeah. I mean, I think people who worked here were very conscientious about trying to make people feel comfortable where they were. And it was not an easy time. It couldn't possibly have been easy for people because there's a lot of fear involved... Dickerson: It actually was probably pretty cool for musicians from all over the world to hear each other work and maybe get inspired by each other. Hnedak: You know, use your imagination. They heard something from Poland or somebody from Spain. You know, who knows? Dickerson: Yeah. But, uh, people find each other. That's the thing. Dickerson: Yeah. These little things make a big difference. Hnedak: OK. And then go through. OK, fine. You ready? Rubenstein: Yeah, ready. Hnedak: OK. Let's go. Hnedak: What do you think? Dickerson: Wow! [Chuckles] I know. So, this was--this is, you know, kind of a hangout. Dickerson: This is incredible. What a welcome... Yeah. to a new country. Hnedak: What would have been a big deck, a paved surface with railings around it. And it was a recreation kind of place. People, this was for the immigrants, those people who were detained here. They could go outside and enjoy the fresh air. So, once again, that's a story about, um, how people were treated. ♪ Rubenstein: How would you compare what happens today to immigrants coming to our borders legally or illegally with what happened at Ellis Island? Kraut: Well, family reunification was a very, very important issue. And there was a rather extensive staff on Ellis Island who helped immigrants find their relatives and find safe places to stay. Now, we all know the story of the separation of children from their parents at the borders. Inside this old warehouse in South Texas, the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol is keeping hundreds of immigrant children in cages created by metal fencing. Kraut: Some of us, myself included, found the behavior despicable. And we are in a moment in American immigration history when there's a great deal of controversy over how to treat newcomers and how to pursue reform of American immigration policy. Reporter: An estimated 7,000 migrants have entered into Arizona since last Thursday. Kraut: Today's situation is a very complicated one. And it's complicated by the reality of the large numbers of unauthorized immigrants. And the United States has had enormous difficulty in terms of controlling that unauthorized flow. It seeks to do that and emphasizes the importance of coming in an authorized and legal fashion, but nevertheless, the unauthorized continue to want to come. Alejandro Mayorkas: The border is not open, and there are alternative paths to seek humanitarian relief. The largest group of migrants and asylum seekers apprehended, 1,036 people crossing near El Paso. Man: Our message is, we're not criminals. We're coming over here because we wanna work. We need a job. We need better, you know, a better life. Man: The Statue of Liberty has some positive elements, but within those positive elements, there's a very long history of who gets to decide who comes into this country and who doesn't. Historically, local newspapers here in El Paso referred to all of this as the other Ellis Island. And my great-aunt was the first person that told me about these very humiliating baths that she had to take whenever she would cross from Juarez to El Paso. I thought maybe her memory isn't completely there. But I was able to confirm it later. My great-aunt's story is correct. So, this is the processing center here at the Rio Vista Bracero Reception Center. So, between 1951 and 1964, 700,000 braceros came through here... [Man speaking indistinctly] Dorado Romo: specifically with the Bracero Program, the Mexican guest worker program, that started in World War II. And this was at a time where America desperately needed Mexican workers because of the war. Processing meant being poked, searched for contraband, X-rayed, vaccinated, fingerprinted, interrogated, stripped, groped, and herded. And then sometimes you would have the farmers come here and touch their muscles. So, you see these photographs of people being almost treated like cattle. [Indistinct chatter] Dorado Romo: All of this happened here. So, this is usually not open to the public. So, this is the Quonset hut that was used in this particular location where they were fumigated with DDT, which is extremely noxious and potentially causes cancer. And when they would come out from the other door, they said that their bodies were all white. It was quite a harrowing experience for them. Dorado Romo: Things like this took place for many decades. This history is absolutely not taught either at the local or at the national level. It's been erased from the books, the history books, the schoolbooks. Dorado Romo: Whether you lived here in El Paso or in other parts of the U.S., you would have absolutely no knowledge that ever happened. Part of the collective mythology of what America is, is this idea that immigrants come here from across the ocean. They see the Statue of Liberty, and she's welcoming people. When an immigrant comes today, the first thing that he's gonna see are those fences. You're gonna see armed people. You're gonna see an attitude not of openness. There is no Statue of Liberty here greeting you. Sometimes people say, "Well, why can't we go back to that "golden age of immigration, where our policies were not based on racism and contempt?" And as an historian, I say, tell me when that ever happened. My great-aunt was going through this in 1917. So, when was this golden age of open-arm immigration policies that we want to go back to? And I think, unfortunately, the Statue of Liberty now has become almost inextricably intertwined with that oversimplification. Wolf Blitzer: Cruel, inhumane, atrocious, and heartbreaking. Those are just some of the words being used to describe this immigration practice now of separating children from their parents. Adding to the outrage, pictures from inside a detention center showing some of those children housed in chain-like cages. ♪ Jim Sciutto: ...thank you very much. And there you have it. This is a protest on July 4th at the Statue of Liberty, which-- with a poem, which reads in part, "Give us your tired and poor," and that protest about immigration, ICE, family separation, et cetera. Woman: It was the 4th of July, and we were protesting the family separation that was unfair to immigrants at the Southern border. Reporter: It began with a group calling itself Rise and Resist, posing in T-shirts reading "Abolish ICE," then dropping a banner from the base of the statue reading the same. Woman: The message was important. It was not a joke. It was serious. There were children in cages. Woman: Oh, you guys are so beautiful. Okoumou: Officers were asking us to remove the banners. They were taking us into custody. They went into one direction to the right, I went up to the left. Reporter: Seven of them arrested, and suddenly police realized they had a climber on Lady Liberty herself. Okoumou: So, I walked to this, what I call, balcony. From this balcony, I jump to the statue, and I hung onto it, and I pulled my body up. [Speaking indistinctly] Okoumou: I was trying to keep my body low and not stand, afraid that the wind can blow me off. It was very high, and it was windy. I found an area where I can sit down and relax. Reporter: Her dramatic demonstration playing out just above the statue's pedestal. That's 154 feet up in the air. Okoumou: I had no idea that I was being watched by millions of people. It was because personally, I felt it was necessary. When it comes to children, tender-aged children, it's just awful. There was too much at stake. Reporter: It took 3 1/2 hours to get to this point. Chopper 4 overhead as the NYPD's ESU Unit made the grab of a demonstrator who had told them she wouldn't come down until "All the children are released." Okoumou: I knew I was going to get arrested, but I didn't know I would be punished for climbing. Afterwards, when the judge found me guilty, sentenced me, I took the punishment. And right now, I'm facing--I'm going-- undergoing my 5-year probation. [Cheering and applause] Okoumou: I really thought the media would take me seriously because I was dead serious. But I became known as the hashtag Statue of Liberty climber, not the woman who was trying to free the children from the cages. I believe in the people's power if we come together for a common cause. Immigration is a huge issue. [Crowd chanting "Shame!"] Okoumou: I thought I was going to make a change. But I felt, kind of, some disappointment. Sometimes things just repeat themselves. We take a long time to better ourselves as far as our immigration policies. ♪ Smith: A monument isn't a policy, but it's an object toward which our vocabulary and our feelings, our hopes, and even our anxieties, can be projected. And so, maybe it's a site where some of the difficult reflection and admission could begin to happen. Smith: But it's hard to get into conversations about the reality of American history without being questioned about being anti-American, about, you know, being somebody who, who wants to undo all of the good that so many people did. Smith: I think everything has the opportunity to evolve. Maybe a Statue of Liberty can be not only an impetus to dialogue and conversation, but I imagine that talking through these things in good faith could be incredibly productive and even a little bit healing. Dickerson: I've had new immigrants to the United States tell me that they have dreamed their whole lives of coming to New York City and visiting the Statue of Liberty. Dickerson: The statue, in their minds, it represents the version of the United States that these new immigrants want to be a part of, that they believe in, that they sacrificed in order to reach. Man: Candidates, please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I will support and defend... Candidates: I will support and defend... Man: the Constitution and laws... Candidates: the Constitution and laws... Man: of the United States of America. Dickerson: And so, I do think the Statue of Liberty is still very important in the minds of both immigrants and Americans who already live here. Man: Congratulations. [Cheers and applause] Dickerson: The reality and why so many people from all over the world continue to try to come here is because they hold on to that idea of the United States that they want to be a part of. They hold on to the values that we state as a nation, even if we don't always live up to them. Dickerson: And it's also the case that the United States continues to be a land of opportunity. Rubenstein, voice-over: Through unpredictable events in history, the statue became a symbol of the great migration, millions of immigrants seeking a better life. Some would become the greatest thinkers, artists, and inventors of our time. Over 135 years later, America still holds that promise as a priority destination for immigrants around the world. Joe Biden: You've each come to America from different circumstances. And like previous generations of immigrants, there's one trait you all share in common: courage. Rubenstein, voice-over: While this country struggles at times with the ideals it embodies, the Statue of Liberty still serves as a powerful reminder of the unique and remarkable achievements of the American experiment. ♪ Announcer: Explore more about "Iconic America" at pbs.org/iconicamerica. Join the conversation with #IconicAmericaPBS and stream more episodes of "Iconic America" on the PBS app. "Iconic America" is also available for download from Amazon Prime Video. ♪

NARRATOR: ORIGINAL PRODUCTION OF "THE CIVIL WAR" WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY GENEROUS CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THESE FUNDERS. AND BY THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING AND BY CONTRIBUTIONS TO YOUR PBS STATION FROM VIEWERS LIKE YOU, THANK YOU. NARRATOR: CORPORATE FUNDING FOR THIS SPECIAL 25TH ANNIVERSARY PRESENTATION WAS PROVIDED BY. MAN: BEFORE THOUSANDS FELL ON THE BATTLEFIELD, BEFORE MILLIONS WERE FREED AND BEFORE A COUNTRY FORGED ITS IDENTITY... A NATION DECLARED A NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM, REDEDICATING ITSELF TO THE PROPOSITION THAT ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL. BANK OF AMERICA IS PROUD TO SPONSOR "THE CIVIL WAR," A FILM BY KEN BURNS, NEWLY RESTORED FOR IT'S 25TH ANNIVERSARY. [SNARE DRUM PLAYING CADENCE] MAN: "WE BELIEVED THAT IT WAS MOST DESIRABLE "THAT THE NORTH SHOULD WIN. "WE BELIEVED IN THE PRINCIPLE "THAT THE UNION IS INDISSOLUBLE. "WE, OR MANY OF US AT LEAST, ALSO BELIEVED "THAT THE CONFLICT WAS INEVITABLE "AND THAT SLAVERY HAD LASTED LONG ENOUGH, "BUT WE EQUALLY BELIEVED THAT THOSE WHO STOOD AGAINST US "HELD JUST AS SACRED CONVICTIONS "THAT WERE THE OPPOSITE OF OURS, "AND WE RESPECTED THEM AS EVERY MAN WITH A HEART MUST RESPECT THOSE WHO GIVE ALL FOR THEIR BELIEF." OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. [APPLAUSE] WE ARE THE VETERANS OF THE CIVIL WAR, ’61 TO ’65. THIS FLAG IS OF THE HAWKINS’ ZOUAVES, NEW YORK. NOW SALUTE. AS A SOUTHERNER, I WOULD SAY ONE OF THE MAIN IMPORTANCES OF THE WAR IS THAT SOUTHERNERS HAVE A SENSE OF DEFEAT, UH, WHICH, UH, NONE OF THE REST OF THE COUNTRY HAS. YOU’LL SEE IN THE MOVIE PATTON, THE ACTOR WHO PLAYS PATTON SAYING, "WE AMERICANS HAVE NEVER LOST A WAR." THAT’S A RATHER AMAZING STATEMENT FOR HIM TO MAKE AS PATTON BECAUSE PATTON’S GRANDFATHER WAS IN LEE’S ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA, AND HE CERTAINLY LOST A WAR. NARRATOR: IN 1865 IN SOUTH AFRICA, WHITES DROVE THE BASUTO TRIBE FROM THEIR LAND. IN AFGHANISTAN, RUSSIAN TROOP MOVEMENTS ALONG THE BORDER WERE A CAUSE OF GREAT INTERNATIONAL CONCERN. AT A MONASTERY IN AUSTRIA, GREGOR MENDEL ESTABLISHED THE PRINCIPLE OF HEREDITY, AND IN IRELAND, THE POET WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS WAS BORN. IN 1865 IN AMERICA, SAMUEL CLEMENS PUBLISHED HIS FIRST SHORT STORY AS MARK TWAIN. THE 13th AMENDMENT, ABOLISHING SLAVERY, WAS FORMALLY RATIFIED, AND THE KU KLUX KLAN WAS FORMED. IN 1860, MOST OF THE NATION’S 31 MILLION PEOPLE LIVED PEACEABLY ON FARMS OR IN SMALL TOWNS. BY 1865, EVERYTHING HAD CHANGED. SHARPSBURG, MARYLAND. FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA. MURFREESBORO, TENNESSEE. GETTYSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA. VICKSBURG, MISSISSIPPI. ATLANTA, GEORGIA. BY THE BEGINNING OF 1865, THE CONFEDERACY WAS DYING. TO THE WEST, ONLY THE TATTERED CONFEDERATE ARMY OF TENNESSEE REMAINED. ITS SOLDIERS, LIKE SAM WATKINS, WORRIED MORE ABOUT FOOD AND BLANKETS AND SHOES THAN FIGHTING. OUTSIDE PETERSBURG, ELISHA HUNT RHODES AND 120,000 OTHER UNION TROOPS WERE DUG IN, UNABLE TO DISLODGE THE STUBBORN REBEL ARMY. ATLANTA HAD BEEN RAZED, AND GEORGIA AND THE CAROLINAS LAY HELPLESS IN WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN’S PATH. AS THE NEW YEAR BEGAN, ROBERT E. LEE ASSUMED COMMAND OF ALL SOUTHERN FORCES AND, WITH IT, THE HOPELESS TASK OF HURLING BACK THE HUGE UNION ARMIES NOW CLOSING IN FROM EVERY SIDE. WITH VICTORY WITHIN HIS GRASP, ABRAHAM LINCOLN LOOKED FORWARD TO A SECOND PRESIDENTIAL TERM AND A NEW CHALLENGE-- HEALING THE NATION HE HAD STRUGGLED SO HARD TO REUNITE. MAN: "HERE WAS THE GREATEST AND MOST MOVING CHAPTER "IN AMERICAN HISTORY, "A BLENDING OF MEANNESS AND GREATNESS, "AN ENDING AND A BEGINNING. "IT CAME OUT OF WHAT MEN WERE, "BUT IT DID NOT GO AS MEN HAD PLANNED. "OF ALL MEN, ABRAHAM LINCOLN CAME THE CLOSEST "TO UNDERSTANDING WHAT HAD HAPPENED. "YET EVEN HE, IN HIS FINAL BACKWARD GLANCE, "HAD TO CONFESS THAT SOMETHING THAT WENT BEYOND WORDS HAD BEEN AT WORK IN THE LAND." "THE ALMIGHTY HAD HIS OWN PURPOSES." BRUCE CATTON. [CANNON FIRE] MAN, AS SHERMAN: "MY AIM WAS TO WHIP THE REBELS, "TO HUMBLE THEIR PRIDE, "TO FOLLOW THEM TO THEIR INNERMOST RECESSES, AND TO MAKE THEM FEAR AND DREAD US." "WAR IS CRUELTY. "THERE’S NO USE TRYING TO REFORM IT. THE CRUELER IT IS, THE SOONER IT WILL BE OVER." WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN. NARRATOR: "WAR IS ALL HELL," WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN ONCE SAID, AND IT WAS NOW HIS AIM TO BRING THAT HELL TO THE HEART OF THE CONFEDERACY. FOOTE: HE SAW FROM THE VERY BEGINNING HOW HARD A WAR IT WAS GONNA BE, AND WHEN HE SAID HOW HARD A WAR IT WAS GONNA BE, HE WAS RETIRED UNDER SUSPICION OF INSANITY AND THEN BROUGHT BACK WHEN THEY DECIDED MAYBE HE WASN’T SO CRAZY AFTER ALL. SHERMAN IS MAYBE THE FIRST TRULY MODERN GENERAL. HE WAS THE FIRST ONE TO UNDERSTAND, IN THE PRESENT-DAY WORLD, THAT CIVILIANS WERE THE BACKERS-UP OF THINGS AND THAT IF YOU WENT AGAINST CIVILIANS, YOU DEPRIVED THE ARMY OF WHAT KEPT IT GOING, SO HE QUITE PURPOSELY MADE WAR AGAINST CIVILIANS. NARRATOR: FROM ATLANTA IN LATE 1864, SHERMAN PROPOSED TO MARCH HIS ARMY THROUGH THE HEART OF GEORGIA ALL THE WAY TO SAVANNAH. HIS ARMY WOULD LIVE OFF THE LAND, DESTROYING EVERYTHING IN ITS PATH THAT COULD CONCEIVABLY AID THE FALTERING CONFEDERACY AND A GOOD DEAL THAT COULDN’T. "I CAN MAKE THIS MARCH," HE PROMISED, "AND MAKE GEORGIA HOWL." LINCOLN’S ADVISORS THOUGHT SHERMAN’S PLAN FOOLHARDY. THE PRESIDENT APPROVED IT. "IF YOU CAN WHIP LEE AND I CAN MARCH TO THE ATLANTIC," SHERMAN TOLD GRANT, "I THINK UNCLE ABE WILL GIVE US 20 DAYS’ LEAVE TO SEE THE YOUNG FOLKS." MAN: "THERE ARE RUMORS THAT WE ARE TO CUT LOOSE "AND MARCH SOUTH TO THE OCEAN. "WE’RE IN FINE SHAPE AND, I THINK, COULD GO ANYWHERE UNCLE BILLY WOULD LEAD." PRIVATE THEODORE UPSON. NARRATOR: BEFORE LEAVING ATLANTA, SHERMAN ORDERED ALL TOWNSPEOPLE, WHITE AND BLACK, OUT OF THEIR HOMES, THEN DIRECTED HIS MEN TO BURN OR DESTROY ANYTHING OF USE TO THE REBELS. [CANNON FIRE] CIVILIANS LOOTED THE TOWN AND HELPED SPREAD THE BLAZE THROUGHOUT THE CITY. MAN: "A GRAND AND AWFUL SPECTACLE IS PRESENTED TO THE BEHOLDER "IN THIS BEAUTIFUL CITY, NOW IN FLAMES. "THE HEAVEN IS ONE EXPANSE OF LURID FIRE. "THE AIR IS FILLED WITH FLYING CINDERS. "THE CITY WHICH, NEXT TO RICHMOND, "HAS FURNISHED MORE MATERIAL FOR PROSECUTING THE WAR THAN ANY OTHER IN THE SOUTH..." "EXISTS NO MORE AS A MEANS FOR INJURY TO BE USED BY THE ENEMIES OF THE UNION." NARRATOR: SHERMAN BEGAN HIS MARCH. 62,000 MEN IN BLUE WERE ON THE MOVE IN TWO GREAT COLUMNS. THEIR SUPPLY TRAIN STRETCHED 25 MILES. A SLAVE WATCHING THE ARMY STREAM PAST WONDERED ALOUD IF ANYBODY WAS LEFT UP NORTH. MAN: "THE NAME OF THE CAPTOR OF ATLANTA, IF HE FAILS NOW, "WILL BECOME THE SCOFF OF MANKIND "AND THE HUMILIATION OF THE UNITED STATES FOR ALL TIME. IF HE SUCCEEDS, IT WILL BE WRITTEN ON THE TABLET OF FAME." LONDON HERALD. [CANNON FIRE] MAN: "REACHING THE HILL JUST OUTSIDE THE OLD REBEL WORKS, "WE PAUSED TO LOOK BACK. "BEHIND US LAY ATLANTA IN RUINS, "THE BLACK SMOKE RISING HIGH IN THE AIR, "HANGING LIKE A PALL. "THEN WE TURNED OUR HORSES’ HEADS TO THE EAST. "ATLANTA WAS SOON LOST BEHIND THE SCREEN OF TREES AND BECAME A THING OF THE PAST." FOOTE: IT HAD BEEN CUMULATIVE EVIDENCE THAT AN ARMY COULD SUBSIST ITSELF ON WHAT WAS GROWING IN THE FIELDS, WINTER OR SUMMER, AND THEY WERE A MOVING CITY, LIKE. THEY WOULD GRIND THEIR OWN CORN AT THE GRIST MILLS ALONG THE WAY, BUTCHER THEIR OWN CATTLE. SHERMAN WAS PERFECTLY SATISFIED HE COULD MAKE THE MARCH WITHOUT DIFFICULTY WITH REGARD TO SUPPLIES. IN FACT, THEY ATE BETTER ON THAT MARCH THAN THEY DID NOT MARCHING. SWEET POTATOES WERE PARTICULARLY PRIZED, AND PORK. THEY HAD PLENTY TO EAT. MAN: "THIS IS PROBABLY "THE MOST GIGANTIC PLEASURE EXCURSION EVER PLANNED. "IT ALREADY BEATS EVERYTHING I EVER SAW SOLDIERING AND PROMISES TO PROVE MUCH RICHER YET." MAN: "WE HAD A GAY OLD CAMPAIGN. "DESTROYED ALL WE COULD NOT EAT, STOLE THEIR NIGGERS, "BURNED THEIR COTTON AND GINS, SPILLED THEIR SORGHUM, "BURNED AND TWISTED THEIR RAILROADS, AND RAISED HELL, GENERALLY." NARRATOR: SHERMAN’S MEN TORE UP RAILROADS, HEATING THE RAILS AND TWISTING THEM BEYOND REPAIR. IT BECAME A TRADEMARK-- SHERMAN’S NECKTIES. HE FORBADE HIS MEN TO PLUNDER THE HOMES THEY PASSED, BUT NEITHER HE NOR THEY TOOK THE ORDER VERY SERIOUSLY. MAN: "I’VE GOT A REGIMENT THAT CAN KILL, GUT, AND SCRAPE A PIG WITHOUT BREAKING RANKS." WOMAN: "THEY SAY NO LIVING THING "IS FOUND IN SHERMAN’S TRACK, "ONLY CHIMNEYS, LIKE TELEGRAPH POLES, TO CARRY THE NEWS OF HIS ATTACK BACKWARDS." MARY CHESNUT. MAN: "I DOUBT IF HISTORY AFFORDS A PARALLEL "TO THE DEEP AND BITTER ENMITY "OF THE WOMEN OF THE SOUTH. "NO ONE WHO SEES THEM AND HEARS BUT MUST FEEL THE INTENSITY OF THEIR HATE." [CANNON FIRE] WOMAN: "AS FAR AS THE EYE COULD REACH, "THE LURID FLAMES OF BURNING HOUSES "LIT UP THE HEAVENS. "I COULD STAND OUT ON THE VERANDA AND, FOR 2 OR 3 MILES, WATCH THE YANKEES AS THEY CAME ON." "I COULD MARK WHEN THEY REACHED THE RESIDENCE OF EACH AND EVERY FRIEND ON THE ROAD." NARRATOR: THE TROOPS LOOTED SLAVE CABINS, AS WELL AS MANSIONS, POKED THEIR RAMRODS INTO FLOWER BEDS IN SEARCH OF BURIED VALUABLES, AND BURNED EVERYTHING IN THEIR PATH. WOMAN: "THE THOUSAND POUNDS OF MEAT IN MY SMOKEHOUSE IS GONE. "MY 18 FAT TURKEYS, MY HENS, "CHICKENS, AND FOWL, MY YOUNG PIGS "ARE SHOT DOWN IN MY YARD AS IF THEY WERE THE REBELS." MAN: "THE CRUELTIES PRACTICED "ON THIS CAMPAIGN TOWARDS THE CITIZENS "HAVE BEEN ENOUGH TO BLAST A MORE SACRED CAUSE THAN OURS. WE HARDLY DESERVE SUCCESS." NARRATOR: AT MILLEDGEVILLE, GEORGIA, SHERMAN’S MEN BOILED THEIR COFFEE OVER BONFIRES OF CONFEDERATE CURRENCY, HELD A MOCK SESSION OF THE LEGISLATURE THAT PASSED A RESOLUTION RETURNING GEORGIA TO THE UNION. SHERMAN’S MEN WERE FEASTING ON DELICACIES FORAGED FROM LOCAL FARMS WHEN A BAND OF EMACIATED MEN TOTTERED INTO THE FIRELIGHT. THEY WERE UNION ESCAPEES FROM ANDERSONVILLE PRISON. AN INDIANA COLONEL REMEMBERED THAT THE SIGHT OF THE STARVED MEN "SICKENED AND INFURIATED" HIS TROOPS. MAN: "WHEN FORAGING NOW, "THEY THINK OF THE TENS OF THOUSANDS "OF THEIR IMPRISONED COMRADES SLOWLY PERISHING WITH HUNGER, AND THEY SWEEP WITH THE SCYTHE OF DESTRUCTION." [CANNON FIRE] NARRATOR: BEFORE THEY WERE THROUGH, SHERMAN AND HIS MEN WOULD CROSS 425 MILES OF HOSTILE TERRITORY AND WREAK $100 MILLION WORTH OF HAVOC. THE SOUTH WOULD NEVER FORGET. MAN: "WE WILL FIGHT YOU TO THE DEATH. "BETTER TO DIE A THOUSAND DEATHS THAN SUBMIT TO LIVE UNDER YOU AND YOUR NEGRO ALLIES." GENERAL JOHN BELL HOOD. NARRATOR: LACKING A LEG AND THE USE OF ONE ARM, JOHN BELL HOOD HAD TO BE STRAPPED TO THE SADDLE EACH MORNING, BUT HE FOUGHT AS HARD AND AS RECKLESSLY AS EVER. HOOD AND HIS DWINDLING ARMY NOW TRIED TO DIVERT SHERMAN’S ATTENTION BY MOVING NORTH TO JOIN FORCES WITH NATHAN BEDFORD FORREST’S CAVALRY AND INVADE TENNESSEE. SHERMAN WAS DELIGHTED. "IF HE WILL GO TO THE OHIO RIVER, I’LL GIVE HIM RATIONS," HE SAID. "MY BUSINESS IS DOWN SOUTH." WAITING FOR HOOD IN TENNESSEE WAS A FRESH, WELL-EQUIPPED UNION ARMY 1/3 AGAIN AS LARGE AS HOOD’S, COMMANDED BY GEORGE THOMAS, "THE ROCK OF CHICKAMAUGA." [CANNON FIRE] AT FRANKLIN, HOOD ORDERED A SERIES OF 13 HOPELESS CHARGES IN WHICH 12 CONFEDERATE GENERALS AND 7,000 SOLDIERS WERE LOST, MORE MEN THAN U.S. GRANT HAD LOST AT COLD HARBOR THE YEAR BEFORE, MORE THAN GEORGE McCLELLAN LOST IN ALL THE BATTLES OF THE 7 DAYS IN 1862. FOOTE: FRANKLIN IS A HORRENDOUS BATTLE, AND THE FLOWER OF THE ARMY FELL. THERE’S A STRONG SUSPICION THAT HOOD WAS TRYING TO DISCIPLINE HIS ARMY BY STAGING THAT CHARGE, AND THERE’S SOME TRUTH IN IT. HIS ARMY WAS WRECKED. THE DEFEAT AT NASHVILLE IS IN LARGE PART DUE TO WHAT HAD HAPPENED AT FRANKLIN A MONTH BEFORE. NARRATOR: AT NASHVILLE, GEORGE THOMAS ATTACKED WHAT WAS LEFT OF HOOD’S ARMY. MAN: "MY BOOT WAS FULL OF BLOOD "AND MY CLOTHING SATURATED WITH IT. "I REACHED GENERAL HOOD’S HEADQUARTERS. "HE WAS MUCH AGITATED AND AFFECTED, "PULLING HIS HAIR WITH HIS ONE HAND-- "HE HAD BUT ONE-- AND CRYING LIKE HIS HEART WOULD BREAK." SAM WATKINS. NARRATOR: HOOD’S ARMY HAD DISINTEGRATED. "I BEHELD FOR THE FIRST AND ONLY TIME," HE CONFESSED, "A CONFEDERATE ARMY ABANDON THE FIELD IN CONFUSION." HOOD RESIGNED. LEE RECALLED JOE JOHNSTON TO ACTIVE DUTY AND PUT HIM IN CHARGE OF PATCHING TOGETHER WHATEVER CONFEDERATE FORCES REMAINED OUTSIDE OF VIRGINIA. MAN: "WE WERE WILLING TO GO ANYWHERE "OR TO FOLLOW ANYONE WHO WOULD LEAD US. "WE WERE ANXIOUS TO FLEE, FIGHT, OR FORTIFY. "I HAVE NEVER SEEN AN ARMY SO CONFUSED AND DEMORALIZED. THE WHOLE THING SEEMED TO BE TOTTERING AND TREMBLING." MAN: "GENTLEMEN, YOU CANNOT QUALIFY WAR "IN HARSHER TERMS THAN I WILL. "WE CANNOT CHANGE THE HEARTS "OF THESE PEOPLE OF THE SOUTH, "BUT WE CAN MAKE WAR SO TERRIBLE "AND MAKE THEM SO SICK OF WAR "THAT GENERATIONS WILL PASS AWAY BEFORE THEY AGAIN APPEAL TO IT." WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN. WOMAN: "DARKEST OF ALL DECEMBERS "EVER MY LIFE HAS KNOWN, "SITTING HERE BY THE EMBERS, STUNNED, HELPLESS, ALONE." MARY CHESNUT. MAN: "MY NAME IS CHARLES JESS. "I WAS BORN IN SOUTH CAROLINA AS A SLAVE, "AND I WAS FREED "WHEN SHERMAN’S ARMY CAME INTO THE COUNTY OF CHATHAM. "I WAS A UNION MAN. "I’S A SLAVE AND COULD NOT BE ANYTHING ELSE "BECAUSE I WANTED MY FREEDOM, "AND I HOPED AND EXPECTED IT WOULD GIVE ME MY FREEDOM, AS IT DID." MAN: "THE NEGROES FOLLOWED THE ARMY "LIKE A SABLE CLOUD IN THE SKY BEFORE A THUNDERSTORM. THEY THOUGHT IT WAS FREEDOM NOW OR NEVER." NARRATOR: 25,000 SLAVES FLED TO SHERMAN’S ARMY, JUBILANT HE HAD COME TO LIBERATE THEM, BUT FEARFUL THAT IF THEY STRAYED TOO FAR FROM HIS COLUMNS, THEY WOULD BE CAUGHT BY CONFEDERATE GUERRILLAS. "PERFECT ANARCHY REIGNED," ONE PLANTATION OWNER SAID. IT WAS, SAID ANOTHER, "THE BREATH OF EMANCIPATION." MAN, ON RECORDING: AND THE YANKEES WOULD COME, AND AFTER A WHILE, THERE WOULD BE A WHOLE TROOP OF MEN COME. THEY SAID THEY WERE YANKEES, ALL RIDING HORSES. SO I ASKED THEM, I SAID, "WHERE ARE THEY GOING?" THEY SAID THEY ALL GOING HOME NOW. THEY SAID, "WELL, ALL OF YOU NIGGERS IS ALL FREE NOW." MAN, AS SHERMAN: "THEY GATHER AROUND ME IN CROWDS, "AND I CAN’T FIND OUT WHETHER I AM MOSES OR AARON, BUT SURELY I AM RATED AS ONE OF THE CONGREGATION." MAN: "IT SEEMS THE GOOD PEOPLE IN THE NORTH "ARE TERRIBLY WORRIED ABOUT US. "THEY CALLED US THE LOST ARMY, "AND SOME THOUGHT WE WOULD NEVER SHOW UP AGAIN. "I DON’T THINK THEY KNOW WHAT KIND OF AN ARMY THIS IS "THAT UNCLE BILLY HAS. "WHY, IF GRANT CAN KEEP LEE AND HIS TROOPS BUSY, WE CAN TRAMP ALL OVER THIS CONFEDERACY." PRIVATE THEODORE UPSON. NARRATOR: THROUGHOUT THE NORTH, PEOPLE WONDERED WHAT HAD HAPPENED TO SHERMAN’S ARMY, UNTIL SUDDENLY, WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN EMERGED NEAR SAVANNAH. MAN: "DECEMBER 25, 1864. "DEAR MR. PRESIDENT, "I BEG TO PRESENT YOU, AS A CHRISTMAS GIFT, "THE CITY OF SAVANNAH, "WITH 150 HEAVY GUNS AND PLENTY OF AMMUNITION, ALSO ABOUT 25,000 BALES OF COTTON." HE THEN REGROUPS AT SAVANNAH, AND IN THE LAST WEEK OF JANUARY, HE STARTS INTO SOUTH CAROLINA. SOUTH CAROLINA GETS IT EVEN WORSE THAN GEORGIA BECAUSE THEY FIGURED THAT’S WHERE SECESSION STARTED. NARRATOR: SHERMAN NOW TURNED HIS COLUMNS NORTHWARD INTO THE CAROLINAS. A RELENTLESS WINTER RAIN WAS FALLING, AND CONFEDERATE GENERALS WERE CONFIDENT NO ARMY COULD MARCH THROUGH THE MUD, BUT SHERMAN AND HIS MEN MADE A STEADY 10 MILES A DAY. BATTALIONS OF AXMEN LED THE WAY, HACKING DOWN WHOLE FORESTS TO CONSTRUCT CORDUROY ROADS. MAN: "WHEN I LEARNED THAT SHERMAN’S ARMY "WAS MARCHING THROUGH THE SALKEHATCHIE SWAMPS "MAKING ITS OWN ROADS "AT THE RATE OF A DOZEN MILES A DAY "AND BRINGING ITS ARTILLERY AND WAGONS WITH IT, "I MADE UP MY MIND THAT THERE HAD BEEN NO SUCH ARMY IN EXISTENCE SINCE THE DAYS OF JULIUS CAESAR." JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. [CANNON FIRE] NARRATOR: SHERMAN’S MEN WERE STILL HARSHER IN SOUTH CAROLINA THAN THEY HAD BEEN IN GEORGIA. "HERE IS WHERE TREASON BEGAN," A PRIVATE SAID, "AND BY GOD, THIS IS WHERE IT SHALL END." FEW HOUSES WERE LEFT STANDING. WOMAN: "THE WIND MOANS AMONG THE BLEAK CHIMNEYS "AND WHISTLES THROUGH THE GAPING WINDOWS. "THE MARKET IS A RUINED SHELL, ITS SPIRE FALLEN IN, "THE OLD BELL, SECESSIA, "THAT HAD RUNG OUT EVERY STATE AS IT SECEDED, LYING HALF-BURIED IN THE EARTH." NARRATOR: ON FEBRUARY 17, 1865, FORT SUMTER WAS ABANDONED, ALONG WITH ALL OF CHARLESTON. "THIS DISAPPOINTMENT," JEFFERSON DAVIS ADMITTED, "IS EXTREMELY BITTER." MAN: "A CITY OF RUINS, "OF DESOLATION, OF VACANT HOUSES, OF WIDOWED WOMEN..." "OF ROTTING WHARVES, "OF DESERTED WAREHOUSES, "OF WEED-WILD GARDENS, OF MILES OF GRASS-GROWN STREETS, "OF ACRES OF PITIFUL AND VOICEFUL BARRENNESS-- "THAT IS CHARLESTON, WHEREIN REBELLION LOFTILY REARED ITS HEAD." [CANNON FIRE] WOMAN: "JACK MIDDLETON WRITES FROM RICHMOND, "THE WOLF IS AT THE DOOR HERE. "WE DREAD STARVATION FAR MORE "THAN WE DO GRANT OR SHERMAN. FAMINE--THAT IS THE WORD NOW." MARY CHESNUT. NARRATOR: EVERYWHERE THE UNION ARMIES MARCHED, THE BACK ROADS FILLED WITH CONFEDERATE REFUGEES. THOUSANDS FLED TO TEXAS IN SEARCH OF A NEW START. THOUSANDS MORE FLOCKED TO RICHMOND, HOPING THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT WOULD CARE FOR THEM. THERE WAS LITTLE IT COULD DO. THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT WAS COMING APART. THE GOVERNOR OF NORTH CAROLINA REFUSED TO PERMIT ANY BUT HIS OWN TROOPS TO WEAR THE 92,000 UNIFORMS HE WAS HOARDING. IN GEORGIA, GOVERNOR JOSEPH BROWN THREATENED TO SECEDE FROM THE CONFEDERACY. STATES’ RIGHTS STILL CAME FIRST. MAN: "IF THE CONFEDERACY FAILS, "THERE SHOULD BE WRITTEN ON ITS TOMBSTONE-- DIED OF A THEORY." PRESIDENT JEFFERSON DAVIS. MAN, AS LEE: "I HAVE BEEN UP TO SEE THE CONGRESS, "AND THEY DO NOT SEEM ABLE TO DO ANYTHING "EXCEPT EAT PEANUTS AND CHEW TOBACCO, WHILE MY ARMY IS STARVING." ROBERT E. LEE. NARRATOR: LEE BEGGED FOR MORE SUPPLIES. DAVIS HAD NONE TO GIVE. A SINGLE STICK OF FIREWOOD COST $5.00 IN RICHMOND. A BARREL OF FLOUR HAD RISEN TO $250 AND COULD RARELY BE FOUND EVEN AT THAT PRICE. WOMAN: "I DAILY PART WITH MY RAIMENT FOR FOOD. "WE FIND NO ONE WHO WILL EXCHANGE EATABLES "FOR CONFEDERATE MONEY, SO WE ARE DEVOURING OUR CLOTHES." NARRATOR: HUNDREDS OF CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS WERE DESERTING EVERY DAY, COLD, HUNGRY, BAREFOOT, DRIVEN BY DESPERATE LETTERS FROM HOME. LEE ASKED THAT SLAVES NOW BE ARMED TO DEFEND THE CONFEDERACY. "WE MUST DECIDE," HE SAID, "WHETHER THE NEGRO SHALL FIGHT FOR US OR AGAINST US. THOSE WILLING TO FIGHT," HE ADDED, WOULD BE FREED AFTER THE WAR." THE CONFEDERATE CONGRESS FINALLY AUTHORIZED BLACK TROOPS BECAUSE, AS THE RICHMOND EXAMINER SAID, "THE COUNTRY WILL NOT DENY GENERAL LEE ANYTHING HE MAY ASK FOR." 6 DAYS LATER, THE CITIZENS OF RICHMOND SAW AN ASTONISHING SIGHT-- A NEW CONFEDERATE BATTALION MADE UP OF WHITE CONVALESCENTS AND BLACK HOSPITAL ORDERLIES MARCHING UP MAIN STREET TO THE STRAINS OF DIXIE. MAN: "YOU CANNOT MAKE SOLDIERS OF SLAVES "OR SLAVES OF SOLDIERS. "THE DAY YOU MAKE A SOLDIER OF THEM "IS THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF THE REVOLUTION, "AND IF SLAVES SEEM GOOD SOLDIERS, THEN OUR WHOLE THEORY OF SLAVERY IS WRONG." SENATOR HOWELL COBB, GEORGIA. NARRATOR: EARLIER THAT WINTER, THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS HAD VOTED 119 TO 56 TO PASS THE 13th AMENDMENT TO ABOLISH SLAVERY AND SENT IT TO THE STATES FOR RATIFICATION. 11 MONTHS LATER, SLAVERY WAS OFFICIALLY ABOLISHED EVERYWHERE AND FOR ALL TIME. MAN: "VERILY, THE WORK DOES NOT END "WITH THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY, BUT ONLY BEGINS." FREDERICK DOUGLASS. MAN: "I SEE THE PRESIDENT ALMOST EVERY DAY. "I SAW HIM THIS MORNING ABOUT 8:30, "COMING INTO BUSINESS. "WE’VE GOT SO THAT WE EXCHANGE BOWS, AND VERY CORDIAL ONES. "I SEE VERY PLAINLY "ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S DARK BROWN FACE WITH ITS DEEP-CUT LINES, "THE EYES ALWAYS, TO ME, WITH A LATENT SADNESS IN THE EXPRESSION." "NONE OF THE ARTISTS OR PICTURES "HAS CAUGHT THE DEEP, THOUGH SUBTLE AND INDIRECT, EXPRESSION "OF THIS MAN’S FACE. "THERE IS SOMETHING ELSE THERE. "ONE OF THE GREAT PORTRAIT PAINTERS OF 2 OR 3 CENTURIES AGO IS NEEDED." WALT WHITMAN. [CANNON FIRE] MAN: "MARCH 4th. "WE CAPTURED 25 CANNON. "GENERAL MOWER FIRED THEM TODAY IN A SALUTE "IN HONOR OF THE INAUGURATION OF MR. LINCOLN "FOR HIS SECOND TERM. "HIS FIRST INAUGURATION WAS NOT CELEBRATED IN NORTH CAROLINA, "BUT THE GLORIFICATION OVER THE BEGINNING OF HIS SECOND TERM GOES TO MAKE UP THE DEFICIENCY." GEORGE NICHOLS. NARRATOR: INAUGURATION DAY WAS COLD AND WINDY, JUST AS IT HAD BEEN 4 YEARS EARLIER... BUT THE U.S. CAPITOL WAS NOW COMPLETE, ITS GREAT IRON DOME IN PLACE, CROWNED BY A BRONZE LIBERTY. JUST BEFORE THE PRESIDENT BEGAN TO SPEAK, THE CLOUDS PARTED, FLOODING THE STAND WITH BRILLIANT SUNLIGHT. MAN, AS LINCOLN: "FONDLY DO WE HOPE, "FERVENTLY DO WE PRAY THAT THIS MIGHTY SCOURGE OF WAR MAY SPEEDILY PASS AWAY." "YET IF GOD WILLS THAT IT CONTINUE "UNTIL ALL THE WEALTH PILED UP "BY THE BONDSMAN’S 250 YEARS OF UNREQUITED TOIL "SHALL BE SUNK "AND UNTIL EVERY DROP OF BLOOD DRAWN WITH THE LASH "SHALL BE PAID BY ANOTHER DRAWN WITH THE SWORD, "AS WAS SAID 3,000 YEARS AGO, "SO STILL MUST BE SAID, "THE JUDGMENTS OF THE LORD ARE TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS ALTOGETHER." "WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE, "WITH CHARITY FOR ALL... "WITH FIRMNESS IN THE RIGHT "AS GOD GIVES US TO SEE THE RIGHT, "LET US STRIVE ON TO FINISH THE WORK WE ARE IN, "TO BIND UP THE NATION’S WOUNDS, "TO CARE FOR HIM WHO SHALL HAVE BORNE THE BATTLE "AND FOR HIS WIDOW AND HIS ORPHAN... "TO DO ALL WHICH MAY ACHIEVE AND CHERISH "A JUST AND LASTING PEACE AMONG OURSELVES AND WITH ALL NATIONS." MAN: CAN IT BE ANYONE BUT LINCOLN THAT ANY OF US COULD BE DRAWN TO AS THE CENTRAL FIGURE OF THE WAR? BECAUSE, IN A WAY, HE COMPREHENDED BOTH SIDES. "WE MUST NOT BE ENEMIES. WE MUST BE FRIENDS." [HAIL TO THE CHIEF PLAYING] NARRATOR: "I’M A TIRED MAN," LINCOLN SAID AFTERWARDS. "SOMETIMES I THINK I’M THE TIREDEST MAN ON EARTH." IN THE CROWD JUST A FEW YARDS FROM LINCOLN WAS THE YOUNG ACTOR JOHN WILKES BOOTH, A PISTOL IN HIS POCKET. HIS VANTAGE POINT ON THE BALCONY, BOOTH SAID AFTERWARDS, HAD OFFERED "AN EXCELLENT CHANCE TO KILL THE PRESIDENT... IF I HAD WISHED." JOHN WILKES BOOTH WAS A FERVENT BELIEVER IN SLAVERY AND WHITE SUPREMACY, BUT DURING 4 YEARS OF WAR, HE HAD NOT BEEN ABLE TO BRING HIMSELF ACTUALLY TO FIGHT FOR THE SOUTHERN CAUSE. MAN, AS BOOTH: "I HAVE BEGUN TO DEEM MYSELF A COWARD AND TO DESPISE MY OWN EXISTENCE." NARRATOR: HIS MIND FIXED ON LINCOLN AS THE TYRANT RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL THE COUNTRY’S TROUBLES AND HIS OWN. BOOTH HATCHED A SCHEME TO KIDNAP LINCOLN AND GATHERED A WORSHIPFUL BAND OF DUBIOUS CONSPIRATORS WILLING TO HELP OUT. LEWIS PAINE, A WOUNDED CONFEDERATE WHO HAD RECENTLY SWORN ALLEGIANCE TO THE UNION. DAVID E. HEROLD, A DRUGGIST’S CLERK WHO WAS THOUGHT BY SOME TO BE MENTALLY RETARDED. GEORGE ATZERODT, A GERMAN-BORN WAGON PAINTER BARELY ABLE TO MAKE HIMSELF UNDERSTOOD IN ENGLISH. AND JOHN H. SURRATT, A SOMETIME CONFEDERATE SPY WHOSE WIDOWED MOTHER MARY KEPT A WASHINGTON BOARDINGHOUSE WHERE BOOTH AND HIS ADMIRERS SOMETIMES MET. [HOOFBEATS] TWO WEEKS AFTER THE INAUGURATION, BOOTH AND HIS ACCOMPLICES, ALL WEARING MASKS, RODE OUT TOWARD THE SOLDIERS’ HOME, WHERE LINCOLN OFTEN SLEPT, HOPING TO INTERCEPT HIS CARRIAGE. THE PRESIDENT NEVER CAME. "SO GOES THE WORLD," BOOTH WROTE. "MIGHT MAKES RIGHT." [STEAM WHISTLE] LATE IN MARCH, LINCOLN SAILED DOWN TO CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, TO CONFER WITH HIS GENERALS ABOARD GRANT’S FLOATING HEADQUARTERS, THE RIVER QUEEN. SHERMAN, WHO HAD INTERRUPTED HIS MARCH THROUGH THE CAROLINAS, HAD MET LINCOLN ONLY ONCE BEFORE, IN 1861, AND FOUND HIM THEN A WEAK AND PARTISAN POLITICIAN UNEQUAL TO HIS TASK. THE TALKS LASTED TWO DAYS. GRANT, SHERMAN, AND ADMIRAL PORTER DETAILED PLANS FOR ONE LAST MAJOR CAMPAIGN. LINCOLN, SATISFIED THAT VICTORY SEEMED WITHIN REACH, OUTLINED PLANS FOR PEACE. "IF THE REBELS WOULD LAY DOWN THEIR GUNS AND GO HOME," LINCOLN SAID, "THEY SHOULD BE WELCOMED BACK AS CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES." MAN: "I NEVER SAW HIM AGAIN. "OF ALL THE MEN I EVER MET, "HE SEEMED TO ME TO POSSESS MORE OF THE ELEMENTS OF GREATNESS "COMBINED WITH GOODNESS THAN ANY OTHER." WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN. [CANNON FIRE] MAN: "MY OWN CORPS WAS STRETCHED "UNTIL THE MEN STOOD LIKE A ROW OF VEDETTES "15 FEET APART. "IT WAS NOT A LINE, IT WAS THE MERE SKELETON OF A LINE." GENERAL JOHN B. GORDON. NARRATOR: ULYSSES S. GRANT AND ROBERT E. LEE HAD FACED ONE ANOTHER IN FRONT OF PETERSBURG FOR 9 MONTHS. SLOWLY, STEADILY, GRANT HAD EXTENDED HIS TRENCHES AROUND PETERSBURG. LEE’S LINES HAD BEEN FORCED TO STRETCH, TOO, BUT HIS ARMY WAS SHRINKING. IN 9 MONTHS, 60,000 SOUTHERN SOLDIERS HAD DESERTED. MAN: "ALL OF US THINK WE’RE WHIPPED NOW. "THE MEN ARE RAGGED AND ARE GETTING HALF RATIONS. "SOME SAY WE’LL HAVE TO GO TO GEORGEY, BUT THE MEN WILL NOT GO THERE." NARRATOR: THE THINNING CONFEDERATE LINES AROUND PETERSBURG FINALLY EXTENDED 53 MILES. GRANT’S FORCES NUMBERED 125,000. LEE’S HAD DWINDLED TO 35,000. [CANNON FIRE] LEE’S ONLY HOPE LAY IN MOVING HIS ARMY TO THE SOUTHWEST TO LINK UP WITH JOHNSTON IN THE HILLS OF NORTH CAROLINA AND FIGHT ON. [CANNON FIRE] ON MARCH 25th, CONFEDERATES UNDER JOHN B. GORDON MOUNTED A SUDDEN NIGHT ASSAULT THAT BRIEFLY WON POSSESSION OF AN EARTHWORK CALLED FORT STEDMAN. IT WAS LEE’S LAST ADVANCE. GRANT COUNTERATTACKED, RACING AROUND THE REBEL FLANK TO BLOCK LEE’S ESCAPE AT FIVE FORKS. THERE, ON APRIL 1st, HE ROUTED A CONFEDERATE DIVISION UNDER GEORGE PICKETT. THE NEXT DAY, UNION FORCES ATTACKED ALL ALONG THE PETERSBURG LINE. SLOWLY, RELENTLESSLY, AND AT GREAT COST, THEY DROVE THE CONFEDERATES OUT OF THEIR TRENCHES. AMONG THE SOUTHERN DEAD LEFT BEHIND WERE SHOELESS BOYS AS YOUNG AS 14. MAN: "THE CONDUCT OF THE SOUTHERN PEOPLE "APPEARS MANY TIMES TRULY NOBLE, AS EXEMPLIFIED, FOR INSTANCE, "IN THE DEFENSE OF PETERSBURG. "OLD MEN WITH SILVER LOCKS LAY DEAD IN THE TRENCHES "SIDE BY SIDE WITH MERE BOYS OF 13 OR 14. "IT ALMOST MAKES ONE SORRY TO HAVE TO FIGHT AGAINST PEOPLE WHO SHOW SUCH DEVOTION FOR THEIR HOMES AND THEIR COUNTRY." WASHINGTON ROEBLING. NARRATOR: A.P. HILL, WHO HAD SERVED LEE FAITHFULLY IN A DOZEN BATTLES AND STAVED OFF CONFEDERATE DISASTER AT ANTIETAM, TRIED TO RALLY HIS MEN. TWO UNION INFANTRYMEN SHOT HIM DEAD AS HE RODE BETWEEN THE LINES. MAN: "HE IS AT REST, AND WE WHO ARE LEFT ARE THE ONES TO SUFFER." [YANKEE DOODLE PLAYING] NARRATOR: PETERSBURG, THE SCENE OF 9 MONTHS’ SIEGE, FELL TO GRANT’S ARMY. AS BLACK CIVILIANS CHEERED THE BLACK SOLDIERS THAT LED THE UNION COLUMNS INTO THE CITY, LEE’S ARMY SLIPPED ACROSS THE APPOMATTOX RIVER. [BELL CHIMES] IN RICHMOND, JEFFERSON DAVIS WAS ATTENDING 10:00 SERVICES THAT SUNDAY MORNING AT ST. PAUL’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH WHEN THE SEXTON HANDED HIM A MESSAGE. MAN: "PRESIDENT DAVIS, MY LINES ARE BROKEN IN 3 PLACES. RICHMOND MUST BE EVACUATED THIS EVENING." ROBERT E. LEE. WOMAN: "I HAPPENED TO SIT IN THE REAR OF THE PRESIDENT’S PEW, "SO NEAR THAT I PLAINLY SAW THE SORT OF GRAY PALLOR "THAT CAME UPON HIS FACE AS HE READ A SCRAP OF PAPER THRUST INTO HIS HAND." NARRATOR: DAVIS HURRIED FROM THE CHURCH AND ORDERED HIS GOVERNMENT TO MOVE TO DANVILLE, VIRGINIA, 140 MILES TO THE SOUTH. ON THE EVENING OF APRIL 2nd, DAVIS AND HIS CABINET BOARDED THE LAST TRAIN, A SERIES OF FREIGHT CARS LABELED "TREASURY DEPARTMENT," "QUARTERMASTER’S DEPARTMENT," "WAR DEPARTMENT." WOMAN: "WE TRIED TO COMFORT OURSELVES BY SAYING IN LOW TONES "THAT THE CAPITAL WAS ONLY MOVED TEMPORARILY, "THAT GENERAL LEE WOULD MAKE A STAND "AND REPULSE THE DARING ENEMY, AND THAT WE WOULD YET WIN THE BATTLE AND THE DAY." NARRATOR: A SLAVE DEALER NAMED LUMPKIN FAILED TO GET HIS 50 CHAINED SLAVES ABOARD. HE HAD TO UNLOCK $50,000 WORTH OF PROPERTY IN THE STREET AND LET THEM GO. THE RETREATING CONFEDERATES SET FIRE TO MUCH OF RICHMOND. MOBS PLUNDERED STORES, BROKE INTO ABANDONED HOUSES. THE FIRE ON LAND SPREAD TO THE CONFEDERATE ARSENAL. [EXPLOSION] THE EXPLOSION ROCKED THE CITY AND SHATTERED WINDOWS FOR MILES AROUND. MAN: "EVERYTHING WAS IN THE WILDEST CONFUSION. "THE LOW CHARACTERS OF THE TOWN HAD BROKEN INTO EVERYTHING "AND WERE LOOTING THE TOWN, "BEING AIDED TO A CONSIDERABLE EXTENT "BY THE SOLDIERS WHO HAD BROKEN THROUGH ALL DISCIPLINE." WOMAN: "I SAW A CONFEDERATE SOLDIER ON HORSEBACK "PAUSE UNDER MY WINDOW. "HE WHEELED AND FIRED BEHIND HIM, "RODE A SHORT DISTANCE, "WHEELED AND FIRED AGAIN. COMING UP THE STREET RODE A BODY OF MEN IN BLUE." [BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC PLAYING] MAN: "ARRIVING AT THE CAPITAL, I SPRANG FROM MY HORSE, "FIRST UNBUCKLING THE STARS AND STRIPES FROM MY SADDLE, "AND WITH CAPTAIN LANGDON, I RUSHED UP TO THE ROOF. "TOGETHER, WE HOISTED THE FIRST LARGE FLAG OVER RICHMOND AND, ON THE PEAK OF THE ROOF, DRANK TO ITS SUCCESS." NARRATOR: MRS. ROBERT E. LEE, TOO CRIPPLED BY ARTHRITIS TO TRAVEL, REMAINED IN RICHMOND. THE UNION COMMANDER POSTED A GUARD BEFORE HER HOUSE, A BLACK CAVALRYMAN, TO ENSURE NO HARM CAME TO HER. MAN, AS LINCOLN: "APRIL 3, 1865. "THANK GOD I HAVE LIVED TO SEE THIS. "IT SEEMS TO ME "THAT I HAVE BEEN DREAMING A HORRID NIGHTMARE "FOR 4 YEARS, "AND NOW THE NIGHTMARE IS GONE. I WANT TO SEE RICHMOND." NARRATOR: ON APRIL 3rd, ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND HIS SON TAD ARRIVED AT ROCKETT’S WHARF ABOARD A SMALL BARGE AND WERE ESCORTED THROUGH THE SMOKING CITY BY A UNIT OF BLACK CAVALRY. FREED SLAVES MOBBED THE PRESIDENT, LAUGHING, SINGING, WEEPING FOR JOY, KNEELING BEFORE HIM, STRAINING TO TOUCH HIS CLOTHES. "I KNOW I AM FREE," SAID ONE MAN, "FOR I HAVE SEEN FATHER ABRAHAM AND FELT HIM." THE PRESIDENT WALKED ABOUT A MILE THROUGH THE CROWD AND LOPED UP THE STEPS OF THE CONFEDERATE WHITE HOUSE, NOW UNION HEADQUARTERS. WHEN HE SAT DOWN AT JEFFERSON DAVIS’ DESK, THE TROOPS OUTSIDE BURST INTO CHEERS. WOMAN: "RICHMOND HAS FALLEN, "AND I HAVE NO HEART TO WRITE ABOUT IT. "THEY ARE TOO MANY FOR US. "EVERYTHING LOST IN RICHMOND, EVEN OUR ARCHIVES. BLUE-BLACK IS OUR HORIZON." MARY CHESNUT. MAN: "THERE IS A STILLNESS IN THE MIDST OF WHICH "RICHMOND, WITH HER RUINS AND HER UNCHANGING SPIRES, "RESTS BENEATH A GHASTLY, FITFUL GLARE. "WE ARE UNDER THE SHADOW OF RUINS. "FROM THE PAVEMENTS WHERE WE WALK "STRETCHES A VISTA OF DEVASTATION. "THE WRECK, THE LONELINESS SEEM INTERMINABLE. "THERE IS NO SOUND OF LIFE "BUT THE STILLNESS OF THE CATACOMB, "ONLY AS OUR FOOTSTEPS FALL DULL ON THE DESERTED SIDEWALK "AND A FUNERAL TROOP OF ECHOES "BUMP AGAINST THE DEAD WALLS AND CLOSED SHUTTERS IN REPLY. "AND THIS IS RICHMOND, "SAYS A MELANCHOLY VOICE. AND THIS IS RICHMOND." NARRATOR: ON APRIL 8th, ABRAHAM AND MARY LINCOLN TOOK A DRIVE TOGETHER PAST A COUNTRY CEMETERY ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF PETERSBURG. WOMAN, AS MARY: "IT WAS A RETIRED PLACE SHADED BY TREES, "AND EARLY SPRING FLOWERS WERE OPENING ON NEARLY EVERY GRAVE. "IT WAS SO QUIET AND ATTRACTIVE "THAT WE STOPPED THE CARRIAGE AND WALKED THROUGH IT. "MR. LINCOLN SEEMED THOUGHTFUL AND IMPRESSED. "HE SAID, "MARY, YOU ARE YOUNGER THAN I. YOU WILL SURVIVE ME. "WHEN I’M GONE, LAY MY REMAINS IN SOME QUIET PLACE LIKE THIS." MAN: "GENERAL LEE WAS RIDING SLOWLY "ALONG THE LINE OF TANGLED WAGONS. HE RODE ERECT, AS IF INCAPABLE OF FATIGUE." NARRATOR: LEE’S ARMY FLED WESTWARD. GRANT WAS RIGHT BEHIND THEM. MAN: "ON AND ON, HOUR AFTER HOUR, "FROM HILLTOP TO HILLTOP, "THE LINES WERE ALTERNATELY FORMING, FIGHTING, "AND RETREATING, "MAKING ONE ALMOST CONTINUOUS BATTLE. "A BOY SOLDIER CAME RUNNING BY AT THE TOP OF HIS SPEED. "WHEN ASKED WHY HE WAS RUNNING, HE SHOUTED BACK, I’M RUNNING ’CAUSE I CAN’T FLY." NARRATOR: FROM DANVILLE ON APRIL 4th, JEFFERSON DAVIS ISSUED A PROCLAMATION PLEDGING TO FIGHT ON. MAN, AS DAVIS: "RELIEVED FROM THE NECESSITY OF GUARDING CITIES, "WITH OUR ARMY FREE TO MOVE FROM POINT TO POINT, "NOTHING IS NOW NEEDED TO RENDER OUR TRIUMPH CERTAIN "BUT OUR OWN UNQUENCHABLE RESOLVE. NO PEACE WILL EVER BE MADE WITH THE INFAMOUS INVADERS." NARRATOR: ON APRIL 6th AT SAYLER’S CREEK, UNION CAVALRY AND INFANTRY INFLICTED 6,000 CASUALTIES ON LEE’S ARMY AND CAPTURED 8 GENERALS, INCLUDING LEE’S OWN SON CUSTIS. HE NOW HAD FEWER THAN 25,000 MEN. 125,000 FEDERAL TROOPS WERE NOW CLOSING IN ON LEE FROM 3 SIDES. UNION GENERAL PHIL SHERIDAN WIRED GRANT, "IF THE THING IS PRESSED, I THINK THAT LEE WILL SURRENDER." "LET THE THING BE PRESSED," LINCOLN ANSWERED. AN OFFICER URGED LEE TO SURRENDER. THE GENERAL ASKED WHAT THE COUNTRY WOULD THINK OF HIM IF HE FAILED TO FIGHT ON. "THE COUNTRY BE DAMNED," SAID THE OFFICER, "THERE IS NO COUNTRY. "THERE HAS BEEN NO COUNTRY FOR A YEAR OR MORE. YOU’RE THE COUNTRY TO THESE MEN." MAN: "THE FEW MEN WHO STILL CARRIED THEIR MUSKETS "HAD HARDLY THE APPEARANCE OF SOLDIERS, "THEIR CLOTHES ALL TATTERED AND COVERED WITH MUD, "THEIR EYES SUNKEN AND LUSTERLESS, "YET STILL THEY WERE WAITING FOR GENERAL LEE TO SAY WHERE THEY WERE TO FACE ABOUT AND FIGHT." MAGNUS THOMPSON, 35th VIRGINIA CAVALRY BATTALION. NARRATOR: LEE’S CONFEDERATE ARMY WAS MOVING ALONG ONE SIDE OF THE APPOMATTOX RIVER, A WILLOW-FRINGED RUN THAT ANY COUNTRY BOY COULD JUMP. HIS PURSUERS CLUNG TO THE OPPOSITE BANK. MAN, AS GRANT: "5 P.M., APRIL 7, 1865. "GENERAL LEE, "THE RESULT OF LAST WEEK MUST CONVINCE YOU "OF THE HOPELESSNESS OF FURTHER RESISTANCE. "I REGARD IT AS MY DUTY TO SHIFT FROM MYSELF "THE RESPONSIBILITY OF ANY FURTHER EFFUSION OF BLOOD "BY ASKING OF YOU THE SURRENDER "OF THAT PORTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES ARMY KNOWN AS THE ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA." ULYSSES S. GRANT. NARRATOR: ON APRIL 8th, GRANT AGAIN FLANKED LEE’S ARMY AND CAPTURED TWO TRAINLOADS OF SUPPLIES. THE CONFEDERATES WERE LIVING ON HANDFULS OF PARCHED CORN. THAT NIGHT, LEE AND HIS WEARY LIEUTENANTS GATHERED AROUND A CAMPFIRE NEAR THE LITTLE VILLAGE OF APPOMATTOX COURTHOUSE. MAN: "WE MET IN THE WOODS AT HIS HEADQUARTERS "BY A LOW-BURNING BIVOUAC FIRE. "THERE WAS NO TENT, NO TABLE, NO CHAIRS, NO CAMP STOOLS. "ON BLANKETS SPREAD UPON THE GROUND "OR ON SADDLES AT THE ROOTS OF TREES WE SAT AROUND THE GREAT COMMANDER." GENERAL JOHN B. GORDON. NARRATOR: THEY WERE ALMOST ENTIRELY SURROUNDED, OUTNUMBERED NEARLY 5 TO 1, WITHOUT HOPE OF RESUPPLY OR REINFORCEMENT. MAN: "BY SUNRISE, WE HAD REACHED APPOMATTOX STATION, "WHERE WE MIGHT CUT LEE’S RETREAT. "ALREADY WE HEARD THE SHARP RING OF THE HORSE ARTILLERY. "THERE WAS NO MISTAKE. "SHERIDAN WAS SQUARE ACROSS THE ENEMY’S FRONT, "HOLDING AT BAY ALL THAT WAS LEFT "OF THE PROUDEST ARMY OF THE CONFEDERACY. IT HAD COME AT LAST-- THE SUPREME HOUR." NARRATOR: APRIL 9th WAS PALM SUNDAY. LEE ORDERED GORDON TO MAKE ONE MORE ATTEMPT AT BREAKING OUT. AT DAWN, JUST OUTSIDE APPOMATTOX COURTHOUSE, GORDON’S MEN DROVE FEDERAL CAVALRY FROM THEIR POSITIONS AND SWEPT FORWARD TO THE CREST OF A HILL. BELOW THEM, A SOLID WALL OF BLUE WAS ADVANCING-- THE ENTIRE UNION ARMY OF THE JAMES. MAN, AS LEE: "THERE IS NOTHING LEFT FOR ME TO DO "BUT TO GO AND SEE GENERAL GRANT, AND I WOULD RATHER DIE A THOUSAND DEATHS." NARRATOR: SHORTLY BEFORE NOON, LEE DISPATCHED A LETTER UNDER A WHITE FLAG INTO THE UNION LINES. GRANT WAS RESTING IN A FIELD, NURSING A BLINDING HEADACHE. SUDDENLY, A HORSEMAN GALLOPED UP AT FULL SPEED, A REPORTER NOTED, "WAVING HIS HAT ABOVE HIS HEAD AND SHOUTING AT EVERY JUMP." GRANT OPENED THE ENVELOPE, LOOKED AT IT, THEN ASKED HIS FRIEND GENERAL JOHN RAWLINS TO READ IT ALOUD-- LEE WOULD SURRENDER. GRANT HIMSELF SAID NOTHING, BETRAYED NO MORE EMOTION, A WITNESS SAID, THAN "LAST YEAR’S BIRD NEST," BUT HIS HEADACHE HAD INSTANTLY DISAPPEARED. MAN: "NO ONE LOOKED HIS COMRADE IN THE FACE. "FINALLY COLONEL DUFF, CHIEF OF ARTILLERY, "SPRANG UPON A LOG AND PROPOSED 3 CHEERS. "A FEEBLE HURRAH CAME FROM A FEW THROATS, WHEN ALL BROKE DOWN IN TEARS." NARRATOR: LEE DISPATCHED COLONEL CHARLES MARSHALL TO APPOMATTOX COURTHOUSE TO FIND A SUITABLE BUILDING IN WHICH HE AND GRANT MIGHT MEET. THE STREETS WERE ALMOST DESERTED. MARSHALL STOPPED THE FIRST CIVILIAN HE HAPPENED TO SEE, WILMER McLEAN, WHO RELUCTANTLY AGREED TO LOAN THE ARMIES HIS HOUSE FOR THE OCCASION. MAN: "BY A SINGULAR COINCIDENCE, "THE MEETING OF GENERALS LEE AND GRANT "TOOK PLACE IN THE HOUSE OF WILMER McLEAN, "THE SAME GENTLEMAN WHO, IN 1861, "AT THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN, "HAD TENDERED HIS HOUSE TO GENERAL BEAUREGARD "FOR HEADQUARTERS. "HE REMOVED FROM MANASSAS AFTER THE BATTLE "WITH THE INTENTION OF SEEKING SOME QUIET NOOK WHERE THE ALARMS OF WAR COULD NEVER FIND HIM." MAN: "1:00 CAME. "I TURNED ABOUT. "THERE BEHIND ME APPEARED A COMMANDING FORM, "SUPERBLY MOUNTED, RICHLY ACCOUTERED, "OF IMPOSING BEARING, NOBLE COUNTENANCE, "WITH EXPRESSION OF DEEP SADNESS "OVER-MASTERED BY A DEEPER STRENGTH. "IT WAS NO OTHER THAN ROBERT E. LEE. "NOT LONG AFTER APPEARED ANOTHER FORM-- "PLAIN, UNASSUMING, SIMPLE, AND FAMILIAR TO OUR EYES, "BUT AS AWE-INSPIRING AS LEE IN HIS SPLENDOR AND SADNESS. "IT WAS GRANT, "SITTING HIS SADDLE WITH THE EASE OF A BORN MASTER, "TAKING NO NOTICE OF ANYTHING, "ALL HIS FACULTIES GATHERED INTO INTENSE THOUGHT. "HE SEEMED GREATER THAN I HAD EVER SEEN HIM, A LOOK AS OF ANOTHER WORLD ABOUT HIM." NARRATOR: LEE ARRIVED AT THE McLEAN HOUSE FIRST, MAGNIFICENT IN A CRISP GRAY UNIFORM, AN ENGRAVED SWORD AT HIS SIDE. "I HAVE PROBABLY TO BE GENERAL GRANT’S PRISONER," HE EXPLAINED TO AN AIDE, "AND THOUGHT I MUST MAKE MY BEST APPEARANCE." HE WAITED HALF AN HOUR FOR GRANT TO ARRIVE. THE UNION COMMANDER WORE A PRIVATE’S DIRTY JACKET. HIS BOOTS AND TROUSERS WERE SPLATTERED WITH MUD. HE HAD NO SWORD. THE TWO COMMANDERS SHOOK HANDS. MAN, AS GRANT: "WHAT GENERAL LEE’S FEELINGS WERE, I DO NOT KNOW. "AS HE WAS A MAN OF MUCH DIGNITY "WITH AN IMPASSIBLE FACE, "HIS FEELINGS WERE ENTIRELY CONCEALED "FROM MY OBSERVATION, "BUT MY OWN FEELINGS WERE SAD AND DEPRESSED. "I FELT LIKE ANYTHING RATHER THAN REJOICING "AT THE DOWNFALL OF A FOE "WHO HAD FOUGHT SO LONG AND VALIANTLY "AND HAD SUFFERED SO MUCH FOR A CAUSE, "THOUGH THAT CAUSE WAS, I BELIEVE, ONE OF THE WORST FOR WHICH PEOPLE EVER FOUGHT." NARRATOR: GRANT REMINDED LEE THAT THEY HAD MET ONCE BEFORE DURING THE MEXICAN WAR. LEE SAID HE HAD NOT REMEMBERED WHAT GRANT LOOKED LIKE. MAN, AS GRANT: "OUR CONVERSATION GREW SO PLEASANT "THAT I ALMOST FORGOT THE OBJECT OF THE MEETING. GENERAL LEE CALLED MY ATTENTION TO THE OBJECT." THEY KNEW EACH OTHER. GRANT REMEMBERED LEE VERY WELL. LEE DIDN’T QUITE REMEMBER GRANT. THAT WAS UNDERSTANDABLE FROM THE TIME THAT THEY WERE ACQUAINTED BACK IN THE EARLY DAYS, BUT I THINK IT WAS THE SENSITIVITY THAT THE TWO MEN HAD FOR EACH OTHER AND FOR THE MOMENT, ENORMOUS DIGNITY AND YET THE NECESSARY INFORMALITY-- GRANT NOT WANTING TO GET TO THE POINT TOO QUICKLY, LEE BRINGING HIM UP SHORTLY TO THE POINT OF WHY THEY’RE TOGETHER; LEE DRESSED IN HIS LAST GOOD UNIFORM, GRANT APOLOGIZING THAT HE WAS RUSHING FROM THE FIELD AND DIDN’T HAVE TIME TO CHANGE; THE SCRIBE BEING UNABLE TO HOLD THE PEN STEADY AND HAVING IT TAKEN BY ANOTHER SOLDIER; THE, UH... THAT, FROM LEE’S POINT OF VIEW, AWFUL MOMENT, AND FROM GRANT’S POINT OF VIEW, GLORIOUS MOMENT, AND YET FOR THE TWO OF THEM, A SAD AND QUIET MOMENT; AND LEE TAKING HIS LEAVE AND DOFFING HIS HAT FROM TRAVELLER AND RIDING BACK TO HIS TROOPS AFTER SECURING THOSE REASONABLE TERMS. IT WAS THE-- IT WAS THE BEGINNING OF THE UNIFICATION OF THE COUNTRY. NARRATOR: THE TERMS GRANT OFFERED WERE SIMPLE AND GENEROUS. CONFEDERATE OFFICERS COULD KEEP THEIR SIDE-ARMS AND PERSONAL POSSESSIONS. OFFICERS AND MEN WHO OWNED THEIR OWN HORSES COULD KEEP THEM, TOO. IT WAS PLANTING SEASON. GRANT ASKED LEE HOW MANY MEN HE HAD AND IF THEY NEEDED ANY RATIONS. LEE SAID HE NO LONGER KNEW THE SIZE OF HIS ARMY, BUT HE WAS SURE ALL HIS MEN WERE HUNGRY. GRANT OFFERED 25,000 RATIONS. MAN, AS LEE: "THIS WILL HAVE THE BEST EFFECT UPON MY MEN. "IT WILL BE VERY GRATIFYING AND DO MUCH TOWARD CONCILIATING OUR PEOPLE." NARRATOR: COLONEL ELY S. PARKER, A SENECA INDIAN AND A MEMBER OF GRANT’S STAFF, INSCRIBED THE ARTICLES OF SURRENDER FOR THE TWO COMMANDERS TO SIGN. THE TWO MEN SHOOK HANDS AGAIN. LEE LEFT THE HOUSE, MOUNTED TRAVELLER, AND STARTED BACK TOWARD HIS ARMY. THE UNION SOLDIERS BEGAN TO CHEER. GRANT ORDERED THEM TO STOP. "THE CONFEDERATES ARE NOW OUR PRISONERS," HE EXPLAINED, "AND WE DO NOT WANT TO EXULT OVER THEIR DOWNFALL. "THE WAR IS OVER. THE REBELS ARE OUR COUNTRYMEN AGAIN." LEE’S MEN LINED THE ROAD TO HIS CAMP. MAN: "AS HE APPROACHED, "WE COULD SEE THE REINS HANGING LOOSE, "AND HIS HEAD WAS SUNK LOW ON HIS BREAST. "AS THE MEN BEGAN TO CHEER, "HE RAISED HIS HEAD, AND, HAT IN HAND, HE PASSED BY, HIS FACE FLUSHED, HIS EYES ABLAZE." MAN: "AS HE PASSED, THEY RAISED THEIR HEADS "AND LOOKED UPON HIM WITH SWIMMING EYES. "THOSE WHO COULD FIND VOICE SAID GOOD-BYE. "THOSE WHO COULD NOT SPEAK PASSED THEIR HANDS GENTLY OVER THE SIDES OF TRAVELLER." MAN: "IF ONE ARMY DRANK THE JOY OF VICTORY "AND THE OTHER THE BITTER DRAUGHT OF DEFEAT, "IT WAS A JOY MODERATED BY THE RECOLLECTION OF THE COST "AT WHICH IT HAD BEEN PURCHASED "AND A DEFEAT MOLLIFIED "BY THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF MANY TRIUMPHS. "IF THE VICTORS COULD RECALL A MALVERN HILL, AN ANTIETAM, "A GETTYSBURG, A FIVE FORKS, "THE VANQUISHED COULD RECALL A MANASSAS, A FREDERICKSBURG, A CHANCELLORSVILLE, A COLD HARBOR." NARRATOR: A CROWD OF SOLDIERS WAITED IN FRONT OF LEE’S TENT. "BOYS," HE TOLD THEM, "I HAVE DONE THE BEST I COULD FOR YOU. "GO HOME NOW, "AND IF YOU MAKE AS GOOD CITIZENS AS YOU HAVE SOLDIERS, "YOU WILL DO WELL, "AND I SHALL ALWAYS BE PROUD OF YOU. GOOD-BYE, AND GOD BLESS YOU ALL." HE TURNED AND DISAPPEARED INTO HIS TENT. THE FORMAL SURRENDER CAME 3 DAYS LATER. GENERAL JOHN B. GORDON, SHOT THROUGH THE FACE AND WOUNDED 4 MORE TIMES IN THE SERVICE OF THE CONFEDERACY, LED 20,000 MEN TOWARD THE UNION LINES FOR THE LAST TIME-- NOT TO FIGHT, BUT TO STACK THEIR ARMS AND SURRENDER THEIR BATTLE FLAGS. THERE TO RECEIVE THEM WAS MAJOR GENERAL JOSHUA LAWRENCE CHAMBERLAIN, HIMSELF WOUNDED SIX TIMES FOR THE UNION. PROMOTED ON THE FIELD AT PETERSBURG NEAR DEATH, HE HAD SOMEHOW SURVIVED. MAN: "ON THEY COME "WITH THE OLD SWINGING ROUTE STEP AND SWAYING BATTLE FLAGS. "BEFORE US IN PROUD HUMILIATION "STOOD THE EMBODIMENT OF MANHOOD-- "THIN, WORN, AND FAMISHED, "BUT ERECT AND WITH EYES LOOKING LEVEL INTO OURS, "WAKING MEMORIES THAT BOUND US TOGETHER AS NO OTHER BOND. "WAS NOT SUCH MANHOOD TO BE WELCOMED BACK "INTO THE UNION SO TESTED AND ASSURED? "ON OUR PART, NOT A SOUND OF TRUMPET MORE "NOR ROLL OF DRUM, NOT A CHEER NOR WORD "NOR WHISPER OF VAINGLORYING NOR MOTION OF MAN, "BUT AN AWED STILLNESS, RATHER, AND BREATH-HOLDING, AS IF IT WERE THE PASSING OF THE DEAD." JOSHUA LAWRENCE CHAMBERLAIN. NARRATOR: NOW CHAMBERLAIN MADE AN EXTRAORDINARY GESTURE. MAN: "CHAMBERLAIN CALLED HIS MEN INTO LINE, "AND AS MY MEN MARCHED IN FRONT OF THEM, "THE VETERANS IN BLUE GAVE A SOLDIERLY SALUTE "TO THOSE VANQUISHED HEROES, A TOKEN OF RESPECT FROM AMERICANS TO AMERICANS." GENERAL JOHN B. GORDON. MAN: "AT THE SOUND OF THAT MACHINELIKE SNAP OF ARMS, "GENERAL GORDON STARTED, "THEN WHEELED HIS HORSE, FACING ME, "TOUCHING HIM GENTLY WITH THE SPUR "SO THAT THE ANIMAL SLIGHTLY REARED, "AND, AS HE WHEELED, HORSE AND RIDER MADE ONE MOTION. "THE HORSE’S HEAD SWUNG DOWN WITH A GRACEFUL BOW, "AND GENERAL GORDON DROPPED HIS SWORD POINT TO HIS TOE IN SALUTATION." [FIREWORKS EXPLODING] NARRATOR: IN WASHINGTON, FIREWORKS FILLED THE SKY. A GREAT CROWD GATHERED AROUND THE WHITE HOUSE AND CALLED FOR LINCOLN. HE WAS TOO WEARY TO MAKE A FORMAL SPEECH BUT ASKED THE BAND TO PLAY DIXIE. "I HAVE ALWAYS THOUGHT IT ONE OF THE BEST TUNES I EVER HEARD," HE SAID. THE NEXT DAY, LINCOLN WALKED OVER TO ALEXANDER GARDNER’S STUDIO AT THE CORNER OF 7th AND D STREET TO SIT FOR ANOTHER PORTRAIT. SOMEHOW, THE GLASS-PLATE NEGATIVE CRACKED WHILE BEING DEVELOPED. THE PHOTOGRAPHER MADE A SINGLE PRINT, THEN THREW THE NEGATIVE AWAY. OVER THE NEXT 4 YEARS, THERE WOULD BE PLENTY OF TIME TO MAKE MORE LINCOLN PORTRAITS. JUST A FEW BLOCKS AWAY, A FRIEND FOUND JOHN WILKES BOOTH ALONE IN HIS DARKENED ROOM AND ASKED HIM IF HE WANTED TO GET A DRINK. "YES," SAID BOOTH, WHO WAS NOW DRINKING A QUART OF BRANDY A DAY, "ANYTHING TO DRIVE AWAY THE BLUES." Man: "WERE THESE THINGS REAL? "DID I SEE THOSE BRAVE AND NOBLE COUNTRYMEN OF MINE "LAID LOW IN DEATH AND WELTERING IN THEIR BLOOD? "DID I SEE OUR COUNTRY LAID WASTE AND IN RUINS? "DID I SEE SOLDIERS MARCHING, "THE EARTH TREMBLING AND JARRING BENEATH THEIR MEASURED TREAD? "DID I SEE THE RUINS "OF SMOLDERING CITIES AND DESERTED HOMES? "DID I SEE THE FLAG OF MY COUNTRY, "THAT I HAD FOLLOWED SO LONG, FURLED TO BE NO MORE UNFURLED FOREVER?" "SURELY THEY ARE BUT THE VAGARIES OF MINE OWN IMAGINATION." [CANNON FIRE] "BUT HUSH! I NOW HEAR THE APPROACH OF BATTLE. "THAT LOW, RUMBLING SOUND IN THE WEST IS THE ROAR OF CANNON IN THE DISTANCE." PRIVATE SAM WATKINS, COMPANY H, 1st TENNESSEE REGIMENT. Different man: "STRANGE, IS IT NOT, "THAT BATTLES, MARTYRS, BLOOD, EVEN ASSASSINATION SHOULD SO CONDENSE A NATIONALITY?" WALT WHITMAN. IT IS THE EVENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY IN THAT IT IS THE MOMENT THAT MADE THE UNITED STATES AS A NATION, AND I MEAN THAT IN DIFFERENT WAYS. THE UNITED STATES WAS OBVIOUSLY A NATION WHEN IT ADOPTED A CONSTITUTION, BUT IT ADOPTED A CONSTITUTION THAT, UH, REQUIRED A WAR TO BE SORTED OUT AND THEREFORE REQUIRED A WAR TO MAKE A REAL NATION OUT OF WHAT WAS A THEORETICAL NATION AS--AS IT WAS DESIGNED AT THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. BEFORE THE WAR, IT WAS SAID, "THE UNITED STATES ARE." GRAMMATICALLY, IT WAS SPOKEN THAT WAY AND THOUGHT OF AS A COLLECTION OF INDEPENDENT STATES. AFTER THE WAR, IT WAS ALWAYS "THE UNITED STATES IS," AS WE SAY TODAY WITHOUT BEING SELF-CONSCIOUS AT ALL. AND THAT SUMS UP WHAT THE WAR ACCOMPLISHED. IT MADE US AN "IS." Narrator: THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA HAD ONCE STRETCHED FROM THE RAPPAHANNOCK TO THE RIO GRANDE. ITS LEADERS HAD ONCE DREAMED OF A TROPICAL EMPIRE REACHING EVER SOUTHWARD TO MEXICO, GUATEMALA, NICARAGUA, BRAZIL. BY APRIL 1865, THE DREAM WAS GONE. RICHMOND HAD FALLEN. THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT, AND JEFFERSON DAVIS WITH IT, HAD FLED INTO THE WILDERNESS OF NORTH CAROLINA. THE CONFEDERATE ARMIES, ONCE THE TERROR OF THE UNION, HAD BEEN BATTERED AND STARVED ALMOST OUT OF EXISTENCE AND THEN FORCED TO SURRENDER AT APPOMATTOX, WHERE ULYSSES S. GRANT HAD FINALLY CORNERED ROBERT E. LEE. IN APRIL 1865, ELISHA HUNT RHODES WOULD RECEIVE THE BEST NEWS OF THE WAR AND THEN THE WORST. IN THE WOODS OF NORTH CAROLINA, TWO OLD ADVERSARIES, WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN AND JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON, WOULD MEET ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE ONE LAST TIME. BY THEN, CONFEDERATE SAM WATKINS WOULD WRITE, "THE ONCE PROUD ARMY OF TENNESSEE HAD DEGENERATED TO A MOB." IN APRIL 1861, ABRAHAM LINCOLN HAD IMPLORED HIS COUNTRYMEN NOT TO GO TO WAR, TO LISTEN TO "THE BETTER ANGELS OF THEIR NATURE." NOW IN APRIL 1865, THE BLOODSHED WAS FINALLY COMING TO AN END. BUT IN WASHINGTON, JOHN WILKES BOOTH COULD NOT ACCEPT THAT THE WAR WAS OVER. IN FOUR YEARS, MORE THAN A MILLION PHOTOGRAPHS WERE MADE OF THE WAR. NOW NO ONE SEEMED TO WANT THEM ANYMORE. MATHEW BRADY WENT BANKRUPT. THOUSANDS OF GLASS-PLATE NEGATIVES WERE LOST, MISLAID OR FORGOTTEN. THOUSANDS MORE WERE SOLD TO GARDENERS, NOT FOR THE IMAGES THEY HELD, BUT FOR THE GLASS ITSELF. IN THE YEARS THAT FOLLOWED APPOMATTOX, THE SUN SLOWLY BURNED THE IMAGE OF WAR FROM THOUSANDS OF GREENHOUSE GLASS PANES. "THE CIVIL WAR," A HARVARD PROFESSOR WROTE AT THE TIME, "OPENED A GREAT GULF "BETWEEN WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE IN OUR CENTURY "AND WHAT HAS HAPPENED SINCE. "IT DOES NOT SEEM TO ME AS IF I WERE LIVING IN THE COUNTRY IN WHICH I WAS BORN." THE WAR WAS OVER, AND IT WAS NOT OVER. Man: "MY SHOES ARE GONE. MY CLOTHES ARE GONE. "I'M WEARY, I'M SICK, I'M HUNGRY. "MY FAMILY HAVE ALL BEEN KILLED OR SCATTERED. "AND I HAVE SUFFERED ALL THIS FOR MY COUNTRY. "I LOVE MY COUNTRY, BUT IF THIS WAR IS EVER OVER, I'LL BE DAMNED IF I EVER LOVE ANOTHER COUNTRY." Different man: "SO BLACKWOOD AND I LEFT THE ARMY--OUR ARMY-- "LEFT THEM THERE ON THE HILL "WITH THEIR ARMS STACKED IN THE FIELD, "ALL IN ROWS, NEVER TO SEE IT ANYMORE. "TELLING CLARKE AND BELL GOOD-BYE, "WE CROSSED THE ROAD INTO THE FIELDS AND THICKETS "AND IN A LITTLE WHILE LOST SIGHT OF ALL THAT TOLD OF THE PRESENCE OF WHAT WAS LEFT OF THE ARMY." BARRY BENSON. Different man: "MONDAY, APRIL 10. "LEE AND HIS ARMY HAVE SURRENDERED! "GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO. "THEY CAN BOTHER AND PERPLEX NONE BUT HISTORIANS HENCEFORTH, "FOREVER. THERE IS NO SUCH ARMY ANYMORE. GOD BE PRAISED." GEORGE TEMPLETON STRONG. Different man: "NEAR APPOMATTOX COURTHOUSE, VIRGINIA. "GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST! "PEACE ON EARTH, GOOD WILL TO MEN! "THANK GOD LEE HAS SURRENDERED, AND THE WAR WILL SOON END. "HOW CAN I RECORD THE EVENTS OF THIS DAY? "SUCH A SCENE ONLY HAPPENS ONCE IN CENTURIES. "GENERAL MEADE RODE LIKE MAD DOWN THE ROAD WITH HIS HAT OFF, SHOUTING, "THE WAR IS OVER, AN D WE ARE GOING HOME. "THE MEN THREW THEIR KNAPSACKS AND CANTEENS INTO THE AIR "AND HOWLED LIKE MAD. "THE REBELS ARE HALF-STARVED, "AND OUR MEN DIVIDED THEIR RATIONS WITH THEM. "I CRIED AND LAUGHED BY TURNS. "I WAS NEVER SO HAPPY IN MY LIFE. "I THANK GOD FOR ALL HIS BLESSINGS TO ME AND THAT MY LIFE HAS BEEN SPARED TO SEE THIS GLORIOUS DAY." ELISHA HUNT RHODES. Narrator: WORD OF LEE'S SURRENDER SPREAD FAST. A GALLOPING RIDER SHOUTED THE GOOD NEWS TO SHERMAN'S ARMY IN NORTH CAROLINA, AND ONE GLEEFUL SOLDIER BELLOWED BACK AT HIM, "YOU'RE THE SON OF A BITCH WE'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR ALL THESE FOUR YEARS!" [BELLS TOLLING] CHURCH BELLS RANG OUT IN EVERY NORTHERN TOWN. THE PEOPLE OF DEER ISLE, MAINE, HAD FOLLOWED THE STEADY MARCH OF UNION VICTORIES WITH THE SAME JOY FELT BY TOWNS ALL OVER THE NORTH, AND WHEN NEWS OF APPOMATTOX GOT OUT TO THE ISLANDS, SHOUTING HORSEMEN CARRIED IT FROM HOUSE TO HOUSE, BUT THE GRIEVING DID NOT END. PRIVATE WILLIAM TOOTHAKER SUCCUMBED TO DISEASE ABOARD A TRANSPORT SHIP, LEAVING FOUR SMALL CHILDREN WHOSE MEMORIES OF HIM WOULD QUICKLY FADE. AND A LETTER CAME, INFORMING PRIVATE ALBION STINSON'S WIFE THAT HER HUSBAND HAD BEEN KILLED NEAR APPOMATTOX COURTHOUSE JUST FIVE DAYS BEFORE THE CONFEDERATE SURRENDER. WHEN THE NEWS REACHED CLARKSVILLE, TENNESSEE, THE UNION MILITARY GOVERNOR ORDERED A GRAND CITYWIDE CELEBRATION. Woman: "ALL THE STOREHOUSES WERE BRILLIANTLY LIGHTED. "THESE BLUE DEVILS DESECRATED OUR CHURCHES "BY RINGING THE BELLS. THEY DID ALL IN THEIR POWER TO A-RILE US." NANNIE HASKINS. [STEAM WHISTLE BLOWS] Narrator: AT VICKSBURG, 2,000 LIBERATED UNION PRISONERS CROWDED ONTO THE DECKS OF THE STEAMBOAT SULTANA, GLEEFUL TO BE ON THEIR WAY NORTH AT LAST. NEAR MEMPHIS, A BOILER EXPLODED, AND SHE BURST INTO FLAMES. MORE THAN 1,200 MEN DIED, STILL HUNDREDS OF MILES FROM HOME. Woman: "WE ARE SCATTERED, STUNNED..." "THE REMNANT OF HEART LEFT ALIVE IN US "IS FILLED WITH BROTHERLY HATE. "WHOSE FAULT? "EVERYBODY BLAMED BY SOMEBODY ELSE. "ONLY THE DEAD HEROES LEFT STIFF AND STARK ON THE BATTLEFIELD ESCAPE." MARY CHESNUT. Narrator: WHEN THE NEWS OF THE SURRENDER REACHED EDMUND RUFFIN, THE OLD VIRGINIA SECESSIONIST WHO HAD FIRED ONE OF THE FIRST SHOTS AT FORT SUMTER, HE DRAPED A REBEL FLAG OVER HIS SHOULDERS AND SHOT HIMSELF RATHER THAN LIVE, HE WROTE, IN A RESTORED UNION WITH MEMBERS OF "THE YANKEE RACE." "YOU MAY FORGIVE US," A SURRENDERING REBEL OFFICER TOLD JOSHUA LAWRENCE CHAMBERLAIN AFTER THE CEREMONY AT APPOMATTOX, "BUT WE WON'T BE FORGIVEN. "THERE IS A RANCOR IN OUR HEARTS WHICH YOU LITTLE DREAM OF. WE HATE YOU, SIR." APRIL 14, 1865 WAS GOOD FRIDAY. IT ALSO MARKED TO THE DAY THE FOURTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SURRENDER OF FORT SUMTER, AND WITHIN THE FORT'S PULVERIZED WALLS THAT MORNING, EVERYTHING WAS BEING READIED FOR A NOONTIME CEREMONY. THE FORT'S OLD UNION COMMANDER, COLONEL ROBERT ANDERSON, WAS TO RAISE THE SAME FLAG HE HAD BEEN FORCED TO HAUL DOWN IN 1861. AN AUDIENCE OF NORTHERN SOLDIERS AND DIGNITARIES AND SOME 4,000 FORMER SLAVES WATCHED. FEW LOCAL WHITES CHOSE TO ATTEND. [THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER PLAYING] Woman: "AT FIRST, I COULD NOT HEAR COLONEL ANDERSON, "FOR HIS VOICE CAME THICKLY, "BUT IN A MOMENT, HE SAID CLEARLY, "I THANK GOD THAT I HAVE LIVED TO SEE THIS DAY. "AND AFTER A FEW MORE WORDS, HE BEGAN TO HOIST THE FLAG. "IT WENT UP SLOWLY AND HUNG LIMP, "A WEATHER-BEATEN, FRAYED, AND SHELL-TORN OLD FLAG "NOT FIT FOR MUCH MORE WORK, "BUT WHEN IT HAD CREPT CLEAR OF THE SHELTER OF THE WALLS, "A SUDDEN BREATH OF WIND CAUGHT IT, "AND IT SHOOK ITS FOLDS AND FLEW STRAIGHT OUT ABOVE US. "I THINK WE STOOD UP. "SOMEBODY STARTED TH E STAR-SPANGLED BANNER. "AND WE SANG THE FIRST VERSE, "WHICH IS ALL THAT MOST PEOPLE KNOW. "BUT IT DID NOT MAKE MUCH DIFFERENCE, "FOR A GREAT GUN WAS FIRED CLOSE TO US FROM THE FORT ITSELF, "FOLLOWED, IN OBEDIENCE TO THE PRESIDENT'S ORDER, "BY A NATIONAL SALUTE FR OM EVERY FORT AND BATTERY THAT FIRED UPON FORT SUMTER." [CANNON FIRE] Narrator: IN WASHINGTON THAT SAME DAY, JOHN WILKES BOOTH DROPPED BY FORD'S THEATRE TO PICK UP HIS MAIL. A STAGEHAND TOLD HIM THE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL GRANT WERE BOTH EXPECTED TO ATTEND THAT NIGHT TO SEE THE ACTRESS LAURA KEENE IN A BRITISH COMEDY CALLED OUR AMERICAN COUSIN. BOOTH TOLD HIS BAND OF DEVOTED FOLLOWERS OF A NEW PLAN. HE WOULD SHOOT LINCOLN AND GRANT. LEWIS PAINE WAS TO KILL SECRETARY OF STATE WILLIAM SEWARD. GEORGE ATZERODT WAS TO SHOOT THE VICE PRESIDENT, ANDREW JOHNSON. EARLY THAT EVENING, BOOTH LED HIS HORSE OUT OF THE LIVERY STABLE NEAR FORD'S THEATRE. A YOUNG BOY WAS TOLD TO HOLD IT AT THE STAGE DOOR. AT THE LAST MINUTE, GENERAL AND MRS. GRANT BEGGED OFF THE THEATRE PARTY AND LEFT THE CITY FOR PHILADELPHIA. THE LINCOLNS ARRIVED AND TOOK THEIR SEATS IN THE PRESIDENTIAL BOX. WITH THEM WERE MAJOR HENRY RATHBONE AND HIS FIANCEE, CLARA HARRIS. Woman: WHAT WOULD YOU AD VISE, MA? Mother: JUST REMEMBER, DE AR, HE'S RICH. [LAUGHTER] HUSH! HERE HE COMES. AH, MR. TRENCHARD! WE WERE JUST SAYING HOW YOU ALWAYS SE EM SURE OF HI TTING YOUR MARK. [LAUGHTER] Narrator: THE PRESIDENT SEEMED TO BE ENJOYING THE PLAY. HIS WIFE HELD HIS HAND. BOOTH SWALLOWED TWO BRANDIES AT A NEARBY BAR, THEN RETURNED TO THE THEATRE. HE WAITED FOR THE LAUGHTER TO RISE, THEN SLIPPED SILENTLY INTO THE PRESIDENT'S BOX. HE HELD A DAGGER IN HIS LEFT HAND, A DERRINGER PISTOL IN HIS RIGHT. Woman: TH E NASTY BEAST! [LAUGHTER] Mother: SIR, YOUR VU LGARITY RENDERS YO U INTOLERABLE IN POLITE SOCIETY. [FOOTSTEPS] [LAUGHTER] [DOOR CLOSES] Trenchard: MAYBE I DON'T KN OW THE MANNERS OF POLITE SOCIETY, BUT I GUESS I KNOW ENOUGH TO TURN YOU INSIDE OUT, OL D GAL, YOU SOCKDOLAGIZING OL D MAN-TRAP. [LAUGHTER] [GUNSHOT] Narrator: BOOTH FIRED, THEN VAULTED OVER THE FRONT OF THE BOX, CAUGHT HIS RIGHT SPUR IN THE DRAPED FLAG, AND LANDED ON STAGE, BREAKING HIS LEFT LEG. HE WAVED HIS DAGGER AND SHOUTED SOMETHING TO THE STUNNED AUDIENCE. SOME THOUGHT HE SAID, "S IC SEMPER TYRANNIS"-- THUS BE IT EVER TO TYRANTS, VIRGINIA'S STATE MOTTO. OTHERS HEARD IT AS "THE SOUTH IS AVENGED!" FOR A LONG MOMENT, THE THEATRE WAS STILL, THEN MARY LINCOLN SCREAMED. THE BULLET FROM BOOTH'S PISTOL HAD ENTERED THE BACK OF LINCOLN'S HEAD, TORN THROUGH HIS BRAIN, AND LODGED BEHIND HIS RIGHT EYE. A SURGEON FROM THE AUDIENCE PRONOUNCED THE WOUND MORTAL. SOLDIERS CARRIED THE UNCONSCIOUS PRESIDENT FROM THE THEATRE INTO A BOARDING HOUSE ACROSS 10th STREET. Man: "WE PUT HIM ON THE FIRST FLOOR "AND LAID HIM ON THE BED. "WHEN WE TOOK HIM INTO THE ROOM, WE HAD TO GET OUT. "THEY WOULDN'T LET ANYBODY IN WITHOUT IT WAS A DOCTOR OR SOMETHING." PRIVATE JACOB SOLES. Different man: "THE GIANT SUFFERER LAY EXTENDED DIAGONALLY ACROSS THE BED, "WHICH WAS NOT LONG ENOUGH FOR HIM. "HE HAD BEEN STRIPPED OF HIS CLOTHES. "HIS SLOW, FULL RESPIRATION LIFTED THE COVERS "WITH EACH BREATH HE TOOK. HIS FEATURES WERE CALM AND STRIKING." GIDEON WELLES. Narrator: THE DOCTORS COULD DO NOTHING. MARY IMPLORED HER HUSBAND TO SPEAK TO HER AND WEPT SO INCONSOLABLY, SHE WAS FINALLY TAKEN INTO THE FRONT PARLOR. CABINET OFFICERS STOOD BY HELPLESS ALL NIGHT, DOUBLY SHOCKED TO HEAR THAT BOOTH'S ACCOMPLICE LEWIS PAINE HAD STABBED SECRETARY OF STATE SEWARD, THEN RUN OUT INTO THE STREET CRYING, "I'M MAD! I'M MAD!" GEORGE ATZERODT HAD BEEN TOO FRIGHTENED TO CARRY OUT BOOTH'S ORDER TO KILL THE VICE PRESIDENT. AROUND 6:00 IN THE MORNING, NAVY SECRETARY WELLES STEPPED OUTSIDE AND FOUND THE STREETS FILLED WITH SILENT, ANXIOUS PEOPLE. Man: "A LITTLE BEFORE 7:00, I WENT BACK INTO THE ROOM. "THE DEATH STRUGGLE HAD BEGUN. "ROBERT, HIS SON, STOOD AT THE HEAD OF THE BED. "HE BORE HIMSELF WELL, "BUT ON TWO OCCASIONS GAVE WAY AND SOBBED ALOUD, LEANING ON THE SHOULDER OF SENATOR SUMNER." AT 7:22 ON THE MORNING OF APRIL 15, 1865, ABRAHAM LINCOLN DIED. HE WAS 56 YEARS OLD. SECRETARY OF WAR EDWIN STANTON SAID, "NOW HE BELONGS TO THE AGES." HIS POCKETS CONTAINED TWO PAIRS OF SPECTACLES, A POCKET KNIFE, A LINEN HANDKERCHIEF, AND A WALLET. IN IT WERE NINE NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS AND A CONFEDERATE $5.00 BILL. Man: "MOTHER PREPARED BREAKFAST AND OTHER MEALS AS USUAL, "BUT NOT A MOUTHFUL WAS EATEN ALL DAY BY EITHER OF US. "WE EACH DRANK HALF A CUP OF COFFEE. THAT WAS ALL. "LITTLE WAS SAID. "WE GOT EVERY NEWSPAPER, MORNING AND EVENING, AND PASSED THEM SILENTLY TO EACH OTHER." WALT WHITMAN. Narrator: THE TELEGRAPH CARRIED THE NEWS ACROSS THE COUNTRY IN MINUTES. NO PRESIDENT HAD EVER BEEN MURDERED. PEOPLE WOULD REMEMBER FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES WHERE THEY WERE AND WHAT THEY FELT AND WHAT THE WEATHER WAS LIKE WHEN THEY HEARD WHAT HAD HAPPENED. Man: "NEAR APPOMATTOX COURTHOUSE, VIRGINIA, "SATURDAY, APRIL 15. "BAD NEWS HAS JUST ARRIVED. "CORPORAL THOMAS PARKER HAS JUST SAID PRESIDENT LINCOLN IS DEAD, "MURDERED. "WE CANNOT REALIZE THAT OUR PRESIDENT IS DEAD. MAY GOD HELP HIS FAMILY AND OUR DISTRACTED COUNTRY." ELISHA HUNT RHODES. Different man: "I HAVE BEEN EXPECTING THIS. "I AM STUNNED, "AS BY A FEARFUL PERSONAL CALAMITY, "THOUGH I CAN SEE THAT THIS THING "OCCURRING JUST AT THIS TIME "MAY BE OVERRULED TO OUR GREAT GOOD. WE SHALL APPRECIATE HIM AT LAST." GEORGE TEMPLETON STRONG. Different man: "ON THE AVENUE IN FRONT OF THE WHITE HOUSE "WERE SEVERAL HUNDRED COLORED PEOPLE, "MOSTLY WOMEN AND CHILDREN, "WEEPING AND WAILING THEIR LOSS. "THIS CROWD DID NOT DIMINISH "THROUGH THE WHOLE OF THAT COLD, WET DAY. "THEY SEEMED NOT TO KNOW WHAT WAS TO BE THEIR FATE "SINCE THEIR GREAT BENEFACTOR WAS DEAD, "AND THOUGH STRONG AND BRAVE MEN WEPT WHEN I MET THEM, "THE HOPELESS GRIEF OF THOSE POOR COLORED PEOPLE AFFECTED ME MORE THAN ALMOST ANYTHING ELSE." GIDEON WELLES. Narrator: LINCOLN'S CASKET LAY IN STATE, FIRST IN THE EAST ROOM OF THE WHITE HOUSE, THEN IN THE ROTUNDA OF THE CAPITOL. HE WAS TO BE BURIED IN SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, HIS ADOPTED HOME. THE SMALL COFFIN OF HIS SON WILLY, WHO HAD DIED IN WASHINGTON, WAS DISINTERRED TO MAKE THE JOURNEY WITH HIM. MARY LINCOLN WAS TOO OVERCOME WITH GRIEF TO GO. THE FUNERAL TRAIN TOOK 12 DAYS AND TRAVELED 1,662 MILES THROUGH THE SOFT SPRING LANDSCAPE, RETRACING THE ROUTE LINCOLN HAD TAKEN TO WASHINGTON FOUR YEARS EARLIER. [TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS] IN PHILADELPHIA, LINCOLN'S COFFIN LAY IN INDEPENDENCE HALL, WHERE HE HAD DECLARED HE WOULD "RATHER BE ASSASSINATED" THAN SURRENDER THE PRINCIPLES EMBODIED IN THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. [DRUM AND FIFE PLAYING FUNEREAL MARCH] IN NEW YORK, THE PROCESSION TOOK FOUR HOURS. SCALPERS SOLD CHOICE WINDOW POSITIONS ALONG THE ROUTE FOR $4.00 AND UP. FROM HIS GRANDFATHER'S WINDOW, A YOUNG THEODORE ROOSEVELT WATCHED THE PROCESSION PASS. AT CLEVELAND, 10,000 MOURNERS PASSED THROUGH A SPECIALLY BUILT OUTDOOR PAVILION EVERY HOUR, ALL DAY, DESPITE A DRIVING RAIN. IT ENDED IN SPRINGFIELD ON MAY 4th. THE COFFIN RODE TO THE ILLINOIS STATE HOUSE IN A MAGNIFICENT BLACK-AND-SILVER HEARSE BORROWED FROM ST. LOUIS AND LAY OPEN IN THE CHAMBER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES WHERE LINCOLN HAD WARNED THAT "A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF CANNOT STAND." AMONG THE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE WHO SHUFFLED PAST HIS COFFIN WERE MANY WHO HAD KNOWN HIM IN THE OLD DAYS-- FARMERS FROM NEW SALEM, LAW CLIENTS AND RIVAL ATTORNEYS, NEIGHBORS WHO HAD NODDED TO HIM EACH MORNING ON HIS WAY TO WORK. SARAH, THE PRESIDENT'S STEPMOTHER, HAD HAD A PREMONITION WHEN LINCOLN LEFT FOR WASHINGTON FOUR YEARS BEFORE. "I FELT IT IN MY HEART THAT SOMETHING WOULD HAPPEN TO HIM," SHE SAID, "AND THAT I SHOULD SEE HIM NO MORE." GENERAL JOSEPH HOOKER LED THE FINAL, SLOW MARCH TO OAK RIDGE CEMETERY THROUGH A GENTLE SPRING RAIN. "YOU WHITE PEOPLE ARE THE CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. "WE ARE AT BEST ONLY HIS STEPCHILDREN. "VIEWED FROM THE GENUINE ABOLITION GROUND, "MR. LINCOLN SEEMED TARDY, COLD, DULL, INDIFFERENT, "BUT MEASURING HIM BY THE SENTIMENT OF HIS COUNTRY, "A SENTIMENT HE WAS BOUND AS A STATESMAN TO CONSULT, "HE WAS SWIFT, ZEALOUS, RADICAL, AND DETERMINED. "TAKING HIM ALL IN ALL, "MEASURING THE TREMENDOUS MAGNITUDE "OF THE WORK BEFORE HIM, "CONSIDERING THE NECESSARY MEANS TO ENDS, "INFINITE WISDOM HAS SELDOM SENT ANY MAN INTO THE WORLD BETTER FITTED FOR HIS MISSION THAN ABRAHAM LINCOLN." FREDERICK DOUGLASS. [HOOFBEATS] [NEIGH] Narrator: ON APRIL 26, UNION CAVALRY TRAPPED JOHN WILKES BOOTH IN A VIRGINIA TOBACCO BARN AND SET IT AFIRE. HIS ACCOMPLICE DAVID HEROLD SURRENDERED. BOOTH PREFERRED DEATH. A SOLDIER SHOT HIM IN THE NECK. [GUNSHOT] AT THE END, HE ASKED TO HAVE HIS HANDS RAISED, LOOKED AT THEM, AND SAID, "USELESS, USELESS." THAT DAY, IN A FARMHOUSE NEAR DURHAM STATION, NORTH CAROLINA, CONFEDERATE GENERAL JOSEPH JOHNSTON SURRENDERED WHAT WAS LEFT OF HIS ARMY TO WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN. JEFFERSON DAVIS, EXHAUSTED BUT STILL DEFIANT, FLED SOUTHWARD, HOPING SOMEHOW TO RALLY THE CONFEDERACY FROM TEXAS. Man: "IT MAY BE THAT WITH A DEVOTED BAND OF CAVALRY, "I CAN FORCE MY WAY ACROSS THE MISSISSIPPI, "AND IF NOTHING CAN BE DONE THERE, "THEN I CAN GO TO MEXICO AND HAVE THE WORLD FROM WHICH TO CHOOSE A LOCATION." Narrator: ON MAY 10 AT IRWINVILLE, GEORGIA, UNION CAVALRY CAUGHT UP WITH HIM. WITH THE ARREST OF ITS PRESIDENT, THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT CEASED TO EXIST. DAVIS WAS SENT NORTH TO VIRGINIA UNDER HEAVY GUARD. NORTHERN NEWSPAPERS SPREAD THE FALSE RUMOR THAT DAVIS HAD BEEN APPREHENDED WEARING WOMEN'S CLOTHES. NORTH AND SOUTH, HE WAS REVILED AS THE VILLAIN OF THE WAR. THESE MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT DAVIS ARE SO STRANGE, THAT IT'S AS IF A GIGANTIC CONSPIRACY WAS LAUNCHED. IT WAS PARTLY LAUNCHED BY SOUTHERNERS WHO, HAVING LOST THE WAR, DID NOT WANT TO BLAME IT ON THEIR GENERALS, SO THEY BLAMED IT ON THE POLITICIANS, AND, OF COURSE, DAVIS WAS THE CHIEF POLITICIAN. SO IT WAS THE SOUTHERNERS MORE THAN THE NORTHERNERS WHO VILIFIED JEFFERSON DAVIS. THE NORTHERNERS WANTED TO HANG HIM FROM A SOUR APPLE TREE, BUT, UH, THE SOUTHERNERS REALLY TORE HIM DOWN AFTER THE WAR. Narrator: DAVIS WAS IMPRISONED AT FORTRESS MONROE IN A CELL KEPT PERPETUALLY LIT AND WAS MADE TO WEAR CHAINS, THOUGH HE PROTESTED THAT "THOSE ARE ORDERS FOR A SLAVE, AND NO MAN WITH A SOUL IN HIM WOULD OBEY SUCH ORDERS." Man: "DEAR VARINA, THIS IS NOT THE FATE TO WHICH I INVITED YOU "WHEN THE FUTURE WAS ROSE-COLORED FOR US BOTH, "BUT I KNOW YOU WILL BEAR IT EVEN BETTER THAN MYSELF, "AND THAT, OF US TWO, I ALONE WILL EVER LOOK BACK REPROACHFULLY ON MY CAREER." [CANNON FIRE] Narrator: SCATTERED FIGHTING STUTTERED ON IN LOUISIANA, ALABAMA, AND MISSISSIPPI, AND EVEN FURTHER WEST, WHERE ON MAY 13, 1865, PRIVATE JOHN J. WILLIAMS OF THE 34th INDIANA BECAME THE LAST MAN KILLED IN THE CIVIL WAR, IN A BATTLE AT PALMITTO RANCH, TEXAS. THE FINAL SKIRMISH WAS A CONFEDERATE VICTORY. [MARCHING BAND PLAYING] ON THE MORNING OF MAY 23, 1865, THE AMERICAN FLAG FLEW AT FULL STAFF ABOVE THE WHITE HOUSE FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE LINCOLN'S DEATH. U.S. GRANT AND THE NEW PRESIDENT, ANDREW JOHNSON, STOOD SIDE BY SIDE TO WATCH THE GRAND ARMIES OF THE REPUBLIC PASS IN REVIEW DOWN PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE FROM THE CAPITOL. Woman: "AND SO IT CAME, "THIS GLORIOUS OLD ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, "FOR SIX HOURS MARCHING PAST, "18 OR 20 MILES LONG, "THEIR COLORS TELLING THEIR SAD HISTORY. "IT WAS A STRANGE FEELING "TO BE SO INTENSELY HAPPY AND TRIUMPHANT AND YET TO FEEL LIKE CRYING." [APPLAUSE] Narrator: THE GREAT PROCESSION TOOK TWO DAYS. GENERAL GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER STOLE THE SHOW THE FIRST DAY, GALLOPING PAST THE DIGNITARIES FAR AHEAD OF HIS MEN, BRANDISHING HIS SABRE, HIS LONG YELLOW HAIR WHIPPING IN THE WIND. BUT THE CROWDS CHEERED LOUDEST THE NEXT MORNING AS WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN RODE PAST AT THE HEAD OF THE GREAT ARMY HE HAD LED TO THE SEA. BY MAY, MOST OF THE YANKEES HAD WITHDRAWN FROM CLARKSVILLE, TENNESSEE. WHAT REMAINED OF THE 49th AND 14th TENNESSEE REGIMENTS CAME HOME. PRIVATE JOHN J. DENNY OF COMPANY K WAS NOT AMONG THEM. HE HAD DIED AT CHANCELLORSVILLE. OF THE 29 STEWART COLLEGE SENIORS WHO WENT TO WAR, 16 HAD BEEN KILLED IN BATTLE. 7 MORE HAD DIED OF WOUNDS AND DISEASE. IN SEPTEMBER, RAILWAY SERVICE TO CLARKSVILLE WAS RESUMED. DEER ISLE, MAINE, WAS AN INDIRECT CASUALTY OF THE WAR. WHEN ITS MEN CAME HOME, THEY FOUND FISHING HAD FALLEN OFF. THERE WAS NEW MONEY TO BE MADE IN OTHER INDUSTRIES IN NEARBY TOWNS. THE OLD FAMILIES MOVED AWAY. SOME OF THE HOUSES THEY LEFT BEHIND BECAME SUMMER HOMES FOR VACATIONERS, MOST OF WHOM WERE UNAWARE OF WHAT HAD HAPPENED THERE. JOHN WILKES BOOTH'S ACCOMPLICES WERE SWIFTLY TRIED BEFORE A MILITARY COMMISSION. ALL EIGHT WERE FOUND GUILTY. FOUR WERE SENTENCED TO BE HANGED, INCLUDING MARY SURRATT, WHOSE ONLY CRIME MAY HAVE BEEN THAT SHE OWNED THE BOARDING HOUSE IN WHICH THE CONSPIRATORS MET. THE EXECUTIONS TOOK PLACE IN THE COURTYARD OF THE OLD PENITENTIARY BUILDING ON JULY 7. THE PRISONERS CLIMBED THE 13 STEPS AND SAT IN CHAIRS WHILE THE CHARGES WERE READ ALOUD. TWO PRIESTS COMFORTED MRS. SURRATT AND SHIELDED HER FROM THE SUN. WHITE HOODS WERE SLIPPED OVER THEIR HEADS. GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK, THE HERO OF GETTYSBURG, CLAPPED HIS HANDS THREE TIMES, AND SOLDIERS KNOCKED THE FRONT PART OF THE PLATFORM OUT FROM UNDER THE CONDEMNED. [TRAP DOOR OPENS] IT TOOK THEM MORE THAN FIVE MINUTES TO DIE. A NORTHERN NEWSPAPER SAID, "WE WANT TO KNOW THEIR NAMES NO MORE." Man: "SOMEWHERE THEY CRAWLED TO DIE ALONE IN BUSHES, "LOW GULLIES, OR ON THE SIDES OF HILLS. "THERE, IN SECLUDED SPOTS, "THEIR SKELETONS, BLEACHED BONES, TUFTS OF HAIR, "BUTTONS, FRAGMENTS OF CLOTHING ARE OCCASIONALLY FOUND YET." "OUR YOUNG MEN, ONCE SO HANDSOME AND SO JOYOUS, "TAKEN FROM US-- "THE SON FROM THE MOTHER, "THE HUSBAND FROM THE WIFE, THE DEAR FRIEND FROM THE DEAR FRIEND." WALT WHITMAN. Narrator: 3.5 MILLION MEN WENT TO WAR. 620,000 MEN DIED IN IT, AS MANY AS IN ALL THE REST OF AMERICA'S WARS COMBINED. 1/4 OF THE SOUTH'S WHITE MEN OF MILITARY AGE WERE DEAD. IN IOWA, HALF THE MEN ELIGIBLE TO FIGHT SERVED IN THE UNION ARMY, FILLING 46 REGIMENTS IN ALL. 13,001 IOWANS DIED-- 3,540 IN BATTLE, 515 WHILE PRISONERS OF WAR, AND 8,498 OF DISEASE. THOSE FIGURES WERE TYPICAL. THE 5th NEW HAMPSHIRE REGIMENT STARTED OUT FROM CONCORD IN 1861 WITH 1,200 MEN. WHEN THEY RETURNED TO NEW HAMPSHIRE AFTER GETTYSBURG, THERE WERE ONLY 380 LEFT. IN MISSISSIPPI IN 1866, 1/5 OF THE STATE'S ENTIRE BUDGET WAS SPENT ON ARTIFICIAL LIMBS. MILLIONS WERE LEFT WITH VIVID MEMORIES OF MEN WHO SHOULD HAVE STILL BEEN LIVING BUT WERE NOT. THE SURVIVORS WENT HOME AND GOT ON WITH THE BUSINESS OF LIVING. Man: "THE MORNING AFTER MY ARRIVAL HOME, "I DOFFED MY UNIFORM OF FIRST LIEUTENANT, "PUT ON SOME OF MY FATHER'S OLD CLOTHES, "AND PROCEEDED TO WAGE WAR ON THE STANDING CORN. "THE FEELING I HAD WAS SORT OF QUEER. "IT ALMOST SEEMED, SOMETIMES, "AS IF I HAD BEEN AWAY ONLY A DAY OR TWO "AND HAD JUST TAKEN UP THE FARM WORK WHERE I HAD LEFT OFF." LEANDER STILLWELL, FORMERLY 61st ILLINOIS. Narrator: THE BOYS WHO HAD GONE OFF TO WAR WERE OLD MEN NOW. THEY WALKED OVER THE OLD BATTLEFIELDS WITH THEIR FAMILIES, POINTING OUT THE PLACES WHERE THEY HAD ONCE DONE THINGS THAT NOW SEEMED IMPOSSIBLE, EVEN TO THEM. Foote: THEY HAD A THEORETICAL NOTION OF HAVING A COUNTRY, BUT WHEN THE WAR WAS OVER, ON BOTH SIDES, THEY KNEW THEY HAD A COUNTRY. THEY'D BEEN THERE. THEY HAD WALKED ITS HILLS AND TRAMPED ITS ROADS. UH, THEY--THEY SAW THE COUNTRY, AND THEY KNEW THEY HAD A COUNTRY, AND THEY KNEW THE--THE EFFORT THAT THEY HAD EXPENDED AND THEIR DEAD FRIENDS HAD EXPENDED TO PRESERVE IT. IT DID THAT. IT MADE THEIR COUNTRY AN ACTUALITY. [BIRDS CHIRPING] BY THE TURN OF THE CENTURY, MONUMENTS AND MEMORIALS AND STATUES STOOD IN CITY PARKS AND COURTHOUSE SQUARES FROM MAINE TO MISSISSIPPI. Man: "NUMBER 220-- STATUE OF AMERICAN SOLDIER. "PRICE, $450. "WHEN USED AS A FAMILY MONUMENT "AND PHOTOS OF THE DECEASED SOLDIER CAN BE FURNISHED, "WE WILL MODEL A NEW HEAD IN A TRUE LIKENESS. THE EXTRA COST WILL BE BUT $150." THE MONUMENTAL BRONZE COMPANY, BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT. Man: "HALL'S HILL, VIRGINIA, JULY 4, 1865. "ANOTHER INDEPENDENCE DAY IN THE ARMY, "AND THIS HAS BEEN MY FIFTH. "THE FIRST WE PASSED AT CAMP CLARK NEAR WASHINGTON, "THE SECOND AT HARRISON'S LANDING, "THE THIRD AT GETTYSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, "THE FOURTH AT PETERSBURG, "AND TODAY WE ARE BACK IN WASHINGTON "WITH OUR WORK FINISHED. THE DAY HAS BEEN FUN." ELISHA HUNT RHODES. Narrator: THE WAR MADE ELISHA HUNT RHODES. HAVING RISEN FROM PRIVATE TO COLONEL DURING THE WAR, HE WAS PROMOTED TO BRIGADIER GENERAL AFTER IT, THEN WENT INTO THE COTTON AND WOOL BUSINESS IN PROVIDENCE. HE DEVOTED NEARLY EVERY IDLE HOUR TO VETERANS' AFFAIRS AND NEVER MISSED A REGIMENTAL REUNION. Man: "AMERICA HAS NO NORTH, NO SOUTH, NO EAST, NO WEST. "THE SUN RISES OVER THE HILLS AND SETS OVER THE MOUNTAINS. "THE COMPASS JUST POINTS UP AND DOWN, "AND WE CAN LAUGH NOW AT THE ABSURD NOTION "OF THERE BEING A NORTH AND A SOUTH. WE ARE ONE AND UNDIVIDED." SAM WATKINS. Narrator: SAM WATKINS RETURNED TO COLUMBIA, TENNESSEE, RAN THE FAMILY FARM, AND IN THE EVENINGS WORKED ON HIS MEMOIRS, COMPANY AYTCH, DESPITE, HE SAID, "A HOUSE FULL OF YOUNG REBELS CLUSTERING AROUND MY KNEES AND BUMPING MY ELBOWS." BUT FOR THE WAR, THESE MEN WERE LIKE ANY OTHER POSSIBLE FRIENDS. YOU CAN, UH, REMEMBER THE-- THOMAS HARDY'S POEM. "HAD HE AND I BUT MET, IN SOME OLD ANCIENT INN, WE MIGHT SIT DOWN TO WET RIGHT MANY A NIPPERKIN." YOU KNOW, "BUT RANGED AS INFANTRY, STANDING FACE TO FACE, "I SHOT AT HIM AS HE AT ME, AND KILLED HIM IN HIS PLACE. "STRANGE AND CURIOUS, A WAR IS. "YOU SHOOT A FELLOW DOWN YOU'D TREAT WHERE ANY BAR IS, OR HELP TO HALF A CROWN." ISN'T THAT IT? ESPECIALLY IN OUR OWN, UH--OUR OWN SOCIETY, WHERE THESE MEN SHARED A COMMON HISTORY, MEN AND WOMEN, SHARED A COMMON LOVE OF LIBERTY, GAVE IT SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT ENGLISH AS IT SPUN THROUGH THEIR LIVES, BUT AT THE SAME TIME, WHEN DEATH CAME AND THERE WAS NO MORE TO FIGHT ABOUT, THE SORT OF OCEAN OF--OF LOVE AND RESPECT CLOSED OVER THEM AGAIN, AND THEY WERE TOGETHER. Man: "I THINK WE UNDERSTAND WHAT MILITARY FAME IS-- "TO BE KILLED ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE AND HAVE OUR NAMES SPELLED WRONG IN THE NEWSPAPERS." WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN. Narrator: WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN REMAINED A SOLDIER, FIGHTING INDIANS AND SHUNNING POLITICS UNTIL HIS RETIREMENT IN 1883. "IF NOMINATED, I WILL NOT RUN," HE TOLD A REPUBLICAN DELEGATION URGING HIM TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT. "IF ELECTED, I WILL NOT SERVE." HE DIED IN NEW YORK CITY IN THE WINTER OF 1891. AMONG THE HONORARY PALLBEARERS WHO STOOD BAREHEADED IN THE COLD WIND OUTSIDE THE CHURCH WAS 82-YEAR-OLD JOE JOHNSTON, WHO HAD FOUGHT SHERMAN IN GEORGIA AND THE CAROLINAS. WHEN A FRIEND WARNED HIM HE MIGHT FALL ILL, JOHNSTON TOLD HIM, "IF I WERE IN SHERMAN'S PLACE "AND HE WERE STANDING HERE IN MINE, HE WOULD NOT PUT ON HIS HAT." JOHNSTON DIED 10 DAYS LATER OF PNEUMONIA. Woman: "APRIL 1866. "THERE ARE NIGHTS HERE WITH THE MOONLIGHT, "COLD AND GHASTLY, AND THE WHIPPOORWILLS "AND THE SCREECH OWLS ALONE DISTURBING THE SILENCE, "WHEN I COULD TEAR MY HAIR AND CRY ALONE FOR ALL THAT IS PAST AND GONE." MARY CHESNUT. Narrator: WHEN JAMES AND MARY CHESNUT RETURNED TO MULBERRY PLANTATION, THEY FOUND THE OLD HOUSE STRIPPED BY UNION MEN, THE COTTON BURNED. MARY MANAGED TO MAKE A LITTLE MONEY SELLING BUTTER AND EGGS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH HER FORMER SLAVE, AND SHE CONTINUED TO WRITE, BUT SHE NEVER COMPLETED THE MAMMOTH TASK OF REWORKING HER WAR DIARY. JEFFERSON DAVIS WAS NEVER TRIED FOR TREASON, NOR COULD HE EVER BRING HIMSELF TO ASK FOR A PARDON. AFTER TWO YEARS IN PRISON, HE WAS RELEASED ON BOND AND SPENT THE REST OF HIS LIFE LIVING OFF THE CHARITY OF A WEALTHY WIDOW AND WORKING ON A MASSIVE MEMOIR, THE RISE AND FALL OF THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT. HE DIED, STILL PERSUADED OF THE JUSTICE OF HIS CAUSE, AT THE AGE OF 81. HIRAM REVELS OF MISSISSIPPI BECAME THE FIRST BLACK MAN EVER ELECTED TO THE UNITED STATES SENATE, FILLING THE SEAT LAST HELD BY JEFFERSON DAVIS. VICE PRESIDENT ALEXANDER STEPHENS WAS IMPRISONED BRIEFLY AND THEN RE-ELECTED TO HIS OLD CONGRESSIONAL SEAT FROM GEORGIA AS IF THERE HAD NEVER BEEN A CONFEDERACY. MARY TODD LINCOLN NEVER RECOVERED FROM HER HUSBAND'S MURDER. HER SON TAD DIED IN 1871. FIVE YEARS LATER, HER ELDEST SON ROBERT HAD HER COMMITTED TO A MENTAL INSTITUTION. SHE SPENT HER LAST YEARS IN SPRINGFIELD, RARELY LEAVING A ROOM WHOSE CURTAINS WERE NEVER RAISED. FOR CLARA BARTON, THE ANGEL OF THE BATTLEFIELD, THE GRIM WORK CONTINUED. AFTER THE WAR, SHE WENT DOWN TO ANDERSONVILLE AND HELPED ARRANGE DIGNIFIED BURIAL FOR THOUSANDS OF THE UNION PRISONERS WHO HAD DIED THERE, THEN WENT ON TO FOUND THE AMERICAN RED CROSS. ON NOVEMBER 10, 1865, HENRY WIRZ, COMMANDANT AT ANDERSONVILLE PRISON, WAS HANGED IN THE YARD OF THE OLD CAPITOL PRISON IN WASHINGTON FOR WAR CRIMES. HE PLEADED HE HAD ONLY FOLLOWED ORDERS. WALT WHITMAN PUBLISHED DR UM TAPS, A BOOK OF CIVIL WAR POEMS HE THOUGHT HIS FINEST, THEN TURNED LARGELY TO PROSE. HIS WRITINGS REVOLUTIONIZED AMERICAN LITERATURE. PHIL SHERIDAN WENT OUT WEST TO TAKE ON A NEW ENEMY, DECLARING THAT THE ONLY GOOD INDIAN WAS A DEAD INDIAN. GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER WENT WEST, TOO, CARRYING WITH HIM HIS BELIEF IN HIS OWN INVINCIBILITY. IN 1876, THE SIOUX AND CHEYENNE PROVED HIM WRONG. GEORGE McCLELLAN STAYED ABROAD FOR THREE YEARS AFTER LOSING THE ELECTION TO LINCOLN. HE HEARD NO SLANDER ABOUT HIMSELF THERE, HE SAID. THEN HE CAME HOME AND GOT HIMSELF ELECTED GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY. THE CONQUEROR OF FORT SUMTER, PIERRE GUSTAVE TOUTANT BEAUREGARD, PROMOTED RAILROADS, MANAGED THE LOUISIANA STATE LOTTERY, AND GOT RICH. NATHAN BEDFORD FORREST PROMOTED RAILROADS, TOO, BUT FAILED. IN 1867, HE BECAME THE FIRST IMPERIAL WIZARD OF THE KU KLUX KLAN BUT QUIT WHEN THE KLAN GREW TOO VIOLENT EVEN FOR HIM. GENERAL DAN SICKLES SOMEHOW ESCAPED COURT-MARTIAL FOR HIS BLUNDER AT GETTYSBURG. HE HAD THE LEG HE LOST IN THE PEACH ORCHARD MOUNTED IN A MINIATURE CASKET AND GAVE IT TO THE ARMY MEDICAL MUSEUM IN WASHINGTON, WHERE HE VISITED IT REGULARLY FOR 50 YEARS. JOHN BELL HOOD, WHO HAD SURVIVED SOME OF THE FIERCEST FIGHTING OF THE WAR, DIED WITH HIS WIFE AND DAUGHTER IN THE NEW ORLEANS YELLOW FEVER EPIDEMIC OF 1878, LEAVING 10 ORPHANED CHILDREN. GEORGE PICKETT NEVER OVERCAME HIS BITTERNESS OVER THE DESTRUCTION OF HIS DIVISION AT GETTYSBURG. SUFFERING FROM SEVERE DEPRESSION, HE TURNED DOWN OFFERS OF COMMAND FROM THE RULER OF EGYPT AND THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND ENDED UP IN THE INSURANCE BUSINESS. CONFEDERATE GENERAL JAMES LONGSTREET JOINED THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, SERVED AS GRANT'S MINISTER TO TURKEY, DARED TO CRITICIZE LEE'S STRATEGY AT GETTYSBURG, AND FOR ALL THESE THINGS WAS CONSIDERED A TRAITOR TO THE SOUTH BY HIS FORMER COMRADES-IN-ARMS. FREDERICK DOUGLASS CONTINUED TO FIGHT AS HARD FOR CIVIL RIGHTS AS HE HAD AGAINST SLAVERY AND BECAME THE MOST POWERFUL BLACK POLITICIAN IN AMERICA. A YOUNG VISITOR ONCE ASKED HIM WHAT HE SHOULD DO WITH HIS LIFE. "AGITATE!" THE OLD MAN ANSWERED. "AGITATE! AGITATE!" JULIA WARD HOWE HELPED LEAD THE AMERICAN WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION FOR 55 YEARS. AT HER FUNERAL IN 1910, 4,000 MOURNERS JOINED IN SINGING THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC. COLONEL WASHINGTON ROEBLING LEFT THE ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS, FINISHED HIS FATHER'S BRIDGE AT CINCINNATI, AND WENT ON TO BUILD THE GREATEST SUSPENSION BRIDGE IN THE WORLD IN BROOKLYN. Man: "I HAVE FOUGHT AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF THE NORTH "BECAUSE I BELIEVED THEY WERE SEEKING TO WREST FROM THE SOUTH "ITS DEAREST RIGHTS, "BUT I HAVE NEVER CHERISHED TOWARD THEM "BITTER OR VINDICTIVE FEELINGS, AND I HAVE NEVER SEEN THE DAY WHEN I DID NOT PRAY FOR THEM." Narrator: ROBERT E. LEE SWORE RENEWED ALLEGIANCE TO THE UNITED STATES AND BY SO DOING PERSUADED THOUSANDS OF HIS FORMER SOLDIERS TO DO THE SAME. HE WAS WEARY, AILING, AND WITHOUT WORK IN THE SUMMER OF 1865 WHEN AN INSURANCE FIRM OFFERED HIM $50,000 JUST FOR THE USE OF HIS NAME. HE TURNED IT DOWN. "I CANNOT CONSENT TO RECEIVE PAY FOR SERVICES I DO NOT RENDER." Foote: HE ENDED UP IN THE NOBLE WAY YOU MIGHT HAVE EXPECTED AFTER YOU'D LEARNED TO EXPECT IT. HE WAS, UH--DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH HIMSELF AFTER THE WAR. HIS PROFESSION WAS GONE. EVEN HIS COUNTRY WAS GONE. UH, AND HE WAS APPROACHED, WITH A GOOD DEAL OF HESITATION, BY THESE PEOPLE FROM A LITTLE SCHOOL CALLED WASHINGTON COLLEGE, AND HE ACCEPTED THE PRESIDENCY OF WASHINGTON COLLEGE. HE HAD AN ANNUAL SALARY OF $1,500 AND A HOUSE TO LIVE IN, AND HE SPENT THE REST OF HIS LIFE AT WHAT AFTER HIS DEATH WAS CALLED WASHINGTON AND LEE. Narrator: "THE GREATEST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE," HE SAID, "WAS TAKING A MILITARY EDUCATION." AND WHENEVER HIS STUDENTS AND THOSE OF THE NEIGHBORING VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE MARCHED TOGETHER, LEE MADE A POINT OF STAYING OUT OF STEP. HE NEVER RETURNED TO ARLINGTON AGAIN. ONCE, ON HIS WAY TO WASHINGTON, HE GLIMPSED HIS OLD HOME FROM A PASSING TRAIN. HE DIED IN 1870. IN HIS LAST MOMENTS, HE WENT BACK TO THE WAR, ORDERING A.P. HILL TO BRING UP HIS TROOPS, JUST AS STONEWALL JACKSON HAD ON HIS DEATHBED AT CHANCELLORSVILLE. THEN LEE CALLED OUT, "STRIKE THE TENT." Foote: "FOR HE WILL SMILE "AND GIVE YOU WITH UNFLINCHING COURTESY, "PRAYERS, TRAPPINGS, LETTERS, UNIFORMS AND ORDERS, "PHOTOGRAPHS, KINDNESS, VALOR AND ADVICE, "AND DO IT WITH SUCH GRACE AND GENTLENESS "THAT YOU WILL KNOW YOU HAVE THE WHOLE OF HIM PINNED DOWN, "MAPPED OUT, EASY TO UNDERSTAND-- "AND SO YOU HAVE. "ALL THINGS EXCEPT THE HEART. "THE HEART HE KEPT... A SECRET TO THE END FROM ALL THE PICKLOCKS OF BIOGRAPHERS." Man: "I FEEL THAT WE ARE ON THE EVE OF A NEW ERA "WHEN THERE IS TO BE A GREAT HARMONY "BETWEEN THE FEDERAL AND THE CONFEDERATE. "I CANNOT STAY TO BE A LIVING WITNESS "TO THE CORRECTNESS OF THIS PROPHECY, BUT I FEEL IT WITHIN ME THAT IT IS TO BE SO." Narrator: THE QUALITIES THAT SERVED ULYSSES S. GRANT SO WELL IN WAR-- STUBBORNNESS, INDEPENDENCE, AVERSION TO POLITICS-- DESERTED HIM IN PEACETIME. HE ENTERED THE WHITE HOUSE PLEDGED TO PEACE, HONESTY, AND CIVIL RIGHTS, BUT CORRUPTION TAINTED HIS TWO TERMS. AFTER THE PRESIDENCY, HE SETTLED IN MANHATTAN, WHERE HE LENT HIS NAME TO A WALL STREET BROKERAGE FIRM. ANOTHER PARTNER IN THE FIRM STOLE MILLIONS FROM THE SHAREHOLDERS IN 1884 AND BANKRUPTED THE GRANT FAMILY. ONCE AGAIN, U.S. GRANT WAS PENNILESS. AT ALMOST THE SAME MOMENT, HE WAS FOUND TO BE SUFFERING FROM INOPERABLE CANCER OF THE THROAT. DETERMINED TO PROVIDE FOR HIS FAMILY BEFORE HE DIED, HE SET TO WORK WRITING HIS MEMOIRS. IN THE SUMMER OF 1885, HE MOVED TO A COTTAGE AT MOUNT McGREGOR IN THE ADIRONDACKS. UNABLE NOW TO EAT OR SPEAK, HE SAT ON THE FRONT PORCH IN THE AFTERNOONS, LABORING OVER HIS MANUSCRIPT. HE FINISHED IT ON JULY 16 AND DIED ONE WEEK LATER. GRANT'S MEMOIRS SOLD HALF A MILLION COPIES AND RESTORED HIS FAMILY'S FORTUNE. IN 1913, THE GOVERNMENT HELD A 50th ANNIVERSARY REUNION AT GETTYSBURG. IT LASTED THREE DAYS. THOUSANDS OF SURVIVORS BIVOUACKED ON THE OLD BATTLEFIELD, SWAPPING STORIES, LOOKING UP OLD COMRADES. THE CLIMAX WAS TO BE A RE-ENACTMENT OF PICKETT'S CHARGE. AS THE REBEL YELL RANG OUT AND THE OLD CONFEDERATES STARTED FORWARD AGAIN ACROSS THE FIELDS, A MOAN, "A GIGANTIC GASP OF UNBELIEF," ROSE FROM THE UNION MEN ON CEMETERY RIDGE. "IT WAS THEN," ONE ONLOOKER SAID, "THAT THE YANKEES, UNABLE TO RESTRAIN THEMSELVES LONGER, "BURST FROM BEHIND THE STONE WALL "AND FLUNG THEMSELVES UPON THEIR FORMER ENEMIES, "NOT IN MORTAL COMBAT, BUT EMBRACING THEM IN BROTHERLY LOVE AND AFFECTION." Man: "PAGEANT HAS PASSED. "THE DAY IS OVER, BUT WE LINGER, "LOATH TO THINK WE SHALL SEE THEM NO MORE TOGETHER-- THESE MEN, THESE HORSES, THESE COLORS AFIELD." JOSHUA LAWRENCE CHAMBERLAIN. Narrator: JOSHUA LAWRENCE CHAMBERLAIN WAS AT THE GETTYSBURG REUNION, STILL IMPOSING AT 83, DESPITE ALMOST CONSTANT PAIN FROM THE UNHEALED INTERNAL DAMAGE DONE HIM BY A CONFEDERATE MINIE BALL AT PETERSBURG. THE REUNION WAS, HE SAID, A TRANSCENDENTAL EXPERIENCE, "A RADIANT FELLOWSHIP OF THE FALLEN." HE HAD RECEIVED THE MEDAL OF HONOR FOR HIS COURAGE AT LITTLE ROUND TOP, SERVED FOUR TERMS AS GOVERNOR OF MAINE, THEN BECAME PRESIDENT OF BOWDOIN COLLEGE, WHERE HE MANAGED TO TEACH EVERY SUBJECT IN THE CURRICULUM EXCEPT MATHEMATICS. HE DIED OF HIS ANCIENT WOUND IN 1914. THE WAR WAS OVER. WHO WON THE WAR? THE UNION ARMY OBVIOUSLY WON THE WAR IN THE SENSE THAT THEY WERE THE ARMY LEFT STANDING AND HOLDING THEIR WEAPONS WHEN IT WAS ALL OVER. UH, SO THE SOLDIERS WHO FOUGHT IN THE UNION ARMY, THE GENERALS WHO DIRECTED IT, THE PRESIDENT WHO LED THE COUNTRY DURING IT WON THE WAR. IF WE'RE NOT TALKING JUST ABOUT THE SERIES OF BATTLES THAT FINISHED UP WITH THE SURRENDER AT APPOMATTOX, BUT TALKING INSTEAD ABOUT THE STRUGGLE TO MAKE SOMETHING HIGHER AND BETTER OUT OF THE COUNTRY, THEN THE QUESTION GETS MORE COMPLICATED. THE SLAVES WON THE WAR, AND THEY LOST THE WAR BECAUSE THEY WON FREEDOM, THAT IS, THE REMOVAL OF SLAVERY, BUT THEY DID NOT WIN FREEDOM AS THEY UNDERSTOOD FREEDOM. I SUPPOSE THAT SLAVERY IS MERELY THE, UH--THE HORRIBLE STATUTORY EXPRESSION OF A DEEPER--OF A DEEPER RIFT BETWEEN PEOPLE BASED ON RACE, AND THAT IS WHAT WE STRUGGLE STILL TO--TO HEAL. AND, UH, I THINK THE--THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LINCOLN'S LIFE AND HIS VICTORY WAS THAT--THAT WE WILL NEVER AGAIN ENSHRINE THESE CONCEPTS INTO LAW, BUT NOW LET'S SEE WHAT WE CAN DO TO ERASE THEM FROM THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF--OF PEOPLE. THE CIVIL WAR IS NOT ONLY THE CENTRAL EVENT OF AMERICAN HISTORY, BUT IT'S A CENTRAL EVENT IN LARGE WAYS FOR THE WORLD ITSELF. IF WE BELIEVE, TODAY, IN THE 20th CENTURY, AS SURELY WE MUST, THAT POPULAR GOVERNMENT IS THE WAY TO GO, IT IS THE WAY FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT, THEN THE CIVIL WAR ESTABLISHED THE FACT THAT A POPULAR GOVERNMENT COULD SURVIVE, THAT IT COULD OVERCOME AN INTERNAL SECESSION MOVEMENT THAT COULD DESTROY IT. SO THE WAR BECOMES--IN ESSENCE, IT BECOMES A TESTAMENT FOR THE LIBERATION OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT FOR ALL TIME. Narrator: FOUR MILLION AMERICANS HAD BEEN FREED AFTER FOUR YEARS OF AGONY, BUT THE MEANING OF FREEDOM IN AMERICAN LIFE REMAINED UNRESOLVED. "EMANCIPATED SLAVES OWN NOTHING," ONE TENNESSEE PLANTER WROTE, "BECAUSE NOTHING BUT FREEDOM HAS BEEN GIVEN THEM." THOUSANDS OF BLACKS WANDERED SOUTHERN ROADS SEARCHING FOR RELATIVES OR LOOKING FOR WORK OR FOOD. THOUSANDS MORE STAYED ON THEIR PLANTATIONS AS HIRED HANDS OR SHARECROPPERS. THE 13th AMENDMENT WAS FOLLOWED BY A 14th AND A 15th, PROMISING FULL CITIZENSHIP AND DUE PROCESS FOR ALL AMERICAN MEN, WHITE AND BLACK. BUT THE PROMISES WERE SOON OVERLOOKED IN THE SCRAMBLE FOR A NEW PROSPERITY, AND WHITE SUPREMACY WAS BRUTALLY REIMPOSED THROUGHOUT THE OLD CONFEDERACY. THE WHITE SOUTH WON THAT WAR OF ATTRITION. IT WOULD TAKE ANOTHER CENTURY BEFORE BLACKS GAINED BACK THE GROUND FOR WHICH SO MANY HAD GIVEN THEIR LIVES. Fields: I THINK WHAT WE NEED TO REMEMBER MOST OF ALL IS THAT THE CIVIL WAR IS NOT OVER UNTIL WE, TODAY, HAVE DONE OUR PART IN FIGHTING IT, AS WELL AS UNDERSTANDING WHAT HAPPENED WHEN THE CIVIL WAR GENERATION FOUGHT IT. WILLIAM FAULKNER, UH, SAID ONCE THAT HISTORY IS NOT "WAS," IT'S "IS," AND WHAT WE NEED TO REMEMBER ABOUT THE CIVIL WAR IS THAT THE CIVIL WAR IS IN THE PRESENT AS WELL AS IN THE PAST. THE GENERATION THAT FOUGHT THE WAR, THE GENERATION THAT ARGUED OVER THE DEFINITION OF THE WAR, THE GENERATION THAT HAD TO PAY THE PRICE IN BLOOD, THAT HAD TO PAY THE PRICE IN BLASTED HOPES AND A LOST FUTURE, ALSO ESTABLISHED A STANDARD THAT WILL NOT MEAN ANYTHING UNTIL WE HAVE FINISHED THE WORK. YOU CAN SAY THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS SLAVERY ANYMORE WE'RE ALL CITIZENS. BUT IF WE'RE ALL CITIZENS, THEN WE HAVE A TASK TO DO TO MAKE SURE THAT THAT, TOO, IS NOT A JOKE. IF SOME CITIZENS LIVE IN HOUSES AND OTHERS LIVE ON THE STREET, THE CIVIL WAR IS STILL GOING ON. IT'S STILL TO BE FOUGHT, AND REGRETTABLY, IT CAN STILL BE LOST. ♪ WE'RE CAMPING TONIGHT ♪ ♪ ON THE OLD CA MPGROUND ♪ ♪ GIVE US A SONG TO CHEER ♪ ♪ OUR WE ARY HEARTS... ♪ Marshall: GETTYSBURG'S GU NS ARE STILL, AN D THE DEAD SLEEP ON. AMERICA'S MOST FAMOUS BA TTLEGROUND IS A CAMP AGAIN WITH A ROAD DIVIDING TH E BLUE AND GRAY. THERE IS NO OTHER DI VIDING LINE NOW AS 2,500 VETERANS GATHER FR OM NORTH AND SOUTH TO MARK THE 75th ANNIVERSARY OF AMERICA'S ARMAGEDDON. HELLO. HELLO. HO W ARE YOU? GLAD TO SEE YOU. HA HA HA! YO U'RE ALL RIGHT. WOO! WOO! WO O! WOO! WOO! WO O! HA HA HA! THAT'S TH E REBEL YELL. WOO! WOO! WOO! WE THINK THAT WE ARE A WHOLLY SUPERIOR PEOPLE. IF WE'D BEEN ANYTHING LIKE AS SUPERIOR AS WE THINK WE ARE, WE WOULD NOT HAVE FOUGHT THAT WAR, BUT SINCE WE DID FIGHT IT, WE HAVE TO MAKE IT THE GREATEST WAR OF ALL TIMES AND OUR GENERALS WERE THE GREATEST GENERALS OF ALL TIME. IT'S VERY AMERICAN TO DO THAT. [SNARE DRUM BEATING] [DRUM BEATING STOPS] IN TIME, EVEN DEATH ITSELF MIGHT BE ABOLISHED. SERGEANT BARRY BENSON, A SOUTH CAROLINA VETERAN FROM McGOWEN'S BRIGADE, WILCOX'S DIVISION, A.P. HILL'S CORP, ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA, HE HAD ENLISTED THREE MONTHS BEFORE SUMTER, AT AGE 18, AND SERVED THROUGH APPOMATTOX-- SAW IT SO WHEN HE GOT AROUND TO COMPOSING THE REMINISCENCES HE HOPED WOULD "GO DOWN AMONGST MY DESCENDANTS FOR A LONG TIME." RELIVING THE WAR IN WORDS, HE BEGAN TO WISH HE COULD RELIVE IT IN FACT. AND HE CAME TO BELIEVE THAT HE AND HIS FELLOW SOLDIERS, GRAY AND BLUE, MIGHT ONE DAY BE ABLE TO DO JUST THAT, IF NOT HERE ON EARTH, THEN AFTERWARDS IN VALHALLA. "WHO KNOWS?" HE ASKED, AS HIS NARRATIVE DREW TOWARD ITS CLOSE, "BUT IT MAY BE GIVEN TO US, AFTER THIS LIFE, "TO MEET AGAIN IN THE OLD QUARTERS, "TO PLAY CHESS AND DRAUGHTS, "TO GET UP SOON TO ANSWER THE MORNING ROLL CALL, "TO FALL IN AT THE TAP OF THE DRUM FOR DRILL AND DRESS PARADE, "AND AGAIN TO HASTILY DON OUR WAR GEAR "WHILE THE MONOTONOUS PATTER OF THE LONG ROLL "SUMMONS TO BATTLE. "WHO KNOWS, BUT AGAIN THE OLD FLAGS, RAGGED AND TORN, "SNAPPING IN THE WIND, MAY FACE EACH OTHER AND FLUTTER, "PURSUING AND PURSUED, "WHILE THE CRIES OF VICTORY FILL A SUMMER DAY. "AND AFTER THE BATTLE, "THEN THE SLAIN AND WOUNDED WILL ARISE "AND ALL MEET TOGETHER UNDER THE TWO FLAGS, "ALL SOUND AND WELL. "THERE WILL BE TALKING AND LAUGHTER AND CHEERS, "AND ALL WILL SAY, DI D IT NOT SEEM REAL? WAS IT NOT AS IN THE OLD DAYS?" ♪ WE ARE ♪ ♪ WE ARE ♪ ♪ WE ARE ♪ ♪ CLIMBING ♪ ♪ CLIMBING ♪ ♪ JACOB'S ♪ ♪ JACOB'S LADDER ♪ ♪ LADDER ♪ ♪ OH, WE ARE ♪ ♪ WE ARE ♪ ♪ CLIMBING ♪ ♪ CLIMBING ♪ ♪ JACOB'S ♪ ♪ JACOB'S LADDER ♪ ♪ OH, OH...WE ARE ♪ ♪ WE ARE ♪ ♪ CLIMBING ♪ ♪ CLIMBING ♪ ♪ JACOB'S LADDER ♪ ♪ SOLDIERS OF THE CROSS ♪ ♪ EVERY ♪ ♪ EVERY ♪ ♪ ROUND GOES ♪ ♪ ROUND GOES ♪ ♪ HIGHER AND HIGHER ♪ ♪ EVERY ♪ ♪ EVERY ♪ ♪ ROUND GOES ♪ ♪ ROUND GOES ♪ ♪ HIGHER ♪ ♪ HIGHER AND HIGHER ♪ ♪ EVERY ♪ ♪ EVERY ♪ ♪ ROUND GOES ♪ ♪ ROUND GOES ♪ ♪ HIGHER ♪ ♪ HIGHER ♪ ♪ OH ♪ ♪ SOLDIERS ♪ ♪ SOLDIERS ♪ ♪ OF THE CROSS ♪ ♪ DO YOU ♪ ♪ DO YOU ♪ ♪ THINK I'LL ♪ NARRATOR: TO LEARN MO RE ABOUT THE FILM AND SEE EXCLUSIVE WEB CONTENT, VISIT PBS.ORG/CIVIL WAR. AND JOIN THE CONVERSATION ON TWITTER AND FACEBOOK WITH THE #CIVILWARPBS. NARRATOR: THE CIVIL WAR 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION IS AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY AND DVD. THE COMPANION BOOK IS ALSO AVAILABLE. TO ORDER, VISIT SHOPPBS.ORG OR CALL 1-800-PLAY-PBS. ALSO AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD FROM ITUNES. ♪ RISE ♪ ♪ RISE ♪ ♪ SHINE ♪ ♪ SHINE ♪ ♪ GIVE GOD YOUR GLORY ♪ ♪ GLORY ♪ ♪ RISE ♪ ♪ RISE ♪ ♪ SHINE ♪ ♪ SHINE ♪ ♪ GIVE GOD YOUR GLORY ♪ ♪ GLORY ♪ ♪ RISE ♪ ♪ RISE ♪ ♪ SHINE ♪ ♪ SHINE ♪ ♪ GIVE GOD YOUR GLORY ♪ ♪ GLORY ♪ ♪ SOLDIERS OF THE CROSS ♪ ♪ KEEP ON ♪ ♪ KEEP ON ♪ ♪ CLIMBING ♪ ♪ CLIMBING ♪ ♪ WE WILL ♪ ♪ WE WILL SURELY MAKE IT ♪ ♪ KEEP ON ♪ ♪ KEEP ON ♪ ♪ CLIMBING ♪ ♪ CLIMBING ♪ ♪ WE WILL ♪ ♪ WE WILL SURELY MAKE IT ♪ ♪ KEEP ON ♪ ♪ KEEP ON ♪ ♪ CLIMBING ♪ ♪ CLIMBING ♪ ♪ WE WILL ♪ ♪ WE WILL MAKE IT ♪ ♪ SOLDIERS OF THE CROSS ♪ ♪ DO YOU ♪ ♪ CHILDREN ♪ ♪ DO YOU ♪ ♪ DO YOU ♪ ♪ DO YOU ♪ ♪ WANT YOUR FREEDOM? ♪ ♪ FREEDOM ♪ ♪ CHILDREN ♪ ♪ TELL ME ♪ ♪ DO YOU ♪ ♪ DO YOU ♪ ♪ WANT YOUR FREEDOM? ♪ ♪ TELL ME ♪ ♪ DO YOU ♪ ♪ DO YOU ♪ ♪ DO YOU ♪ ♪ DO YOU ♪ ♪ WANT YOUR FREEDOM? ♪ ♪ SOLDIERS OF THE CROSS ♪ ♪ SOLDIERS OF THE CROSS ♪ NARRATOR: CORPORATE FUNDING FOR THIS SPECIAL 25TH ANNIVERSARY PRESENTATION OF THE CIVIL WAR WAS PROVIDED BY. MAN: BEFORE THOUSANDS FELL ON THE BATTLEFIELD, BEFORE MILLIONS WERE FREED AND BEFORE A COUNTRY FORGED ITS IDENTITY... A NATION DECLARED A NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM, REDEDICATING ITSELF TO THE PROPOSITION THAT ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL. BANK OF AMERICA IS PROUD TO SPONSOR "THE CIVIL WAR," A FILM BY KEN BURNS, NEWLY RESTORED FOR IT'S 25TH ANNIVERSARY. NARRATOR: ORIGINAL PRODUCTION OF "THE CIVIL WAR" WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY GENEROUS CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THESE FUNDERS. AND BY THE CORPORATION FO R PUBLIC BROADCASTING. AND BY CONTRIBUTIONS TO YOUR PBS STATION FROM VIEWERS LIKE YOU, THANK YOU.

Announcer: FUNDING FOR THIS PROGRAM IS PROVIDED BY: MEMBERS OF THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY, DEDICATED TO HELPING KEN BURNS TELL AMERICA’S STORIES, INCLUDING THE MONTRONE FAMILY THROUGH THE PENATES FOUNDATION; THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES BECAUSE DEMOCRACY DEMANDS WISDOM; THE ARTHUR VINING DAVIS FOUNDATIONS, DEDICATED TO STRENGTHENING AMERICA’S FUTURE THROUGH EDUCATION; THE PARK FOUNDATION, DEDICATED TO HEIGHTENING PUBLIC AWARENESS OF CRITICAL ISSUES; THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING AND BY CONTRIBUTIONS TO YOUR PBS STATION FROM VIEWERS LIKE YOU. THANK YOU. Narrator: HISTORY, AS SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF KEN BURNS, IS MORE THAN JUST A COLLECTION OF STORIES ABOUT WHAT’S HAPPENED IN THE PAST. IT’S A CHANCE FOR US ALL TO REFLECT ON HOW TO BUILD A STRONGER TOMORROW. WE SHARE IN HIS VISION, AND WE’RE PROUD TO SUPPORT HIS EFFORTS. Man: NOTHING SO NEEDS REFORMING AS OTHER PEOPLE’S HABITS. FANATICS WILL NEVER LEARN THAT, THOUGH IT BE WRITTEN IN LETTERS OF GOLD ACROSS THE SKY. IT IS THE PROHIBITION THAT MAKES ANYTHING PRECIOUS. MARK TWAIN. CAPTIONING MADE POSSIBLE BY FRIENDS OF NCI Narrator: ONE SNOWY EVENING IN JANUARY OF 1826, THE REVEREND LYMAN BEECHER, PASTOR OF THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH OF LITCHFIELD, CONNECTICUT, RODE OUT TO VISIT A PARISHIONER IN NEED. THE YOUNG MAN HAD BEEN AMONG HIS VERY FIRST CONVERTS TO CHRIST, BEECHER REMEMBERED, "ALWAYS MOST AFFECTIONATE AND KIND." BUT SOMETHING WAS WRONG. HIS WIFE WAS WEEPING. "WHAT IS THE MATTER?" BEECHER ASKED HER. SHE SAID THAT HER HUSBAND’S FONDNESS FOR DRINK HAD OVERCOME HIS LOVE FOR HER--AND FOR GOD. BEECHER HAD HEARD THE SAME SAD STORY FROM PARISHIONERS AGAIN AND AGAIN: JOBS LOST, LIFE- SAVINGS SWALLOWED UP, WIVES AND CHILDREN BEATEN AND ABUSED --ALL BECAUSE OF ALCOHOL. NOW HE RESOLVED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Man: LIKE SLAVERY, THE TRAFFIC IN ARDENT SPIRITS MUST COME TO BE REGARDED AS SINFUL... LET THE TEMPERATE PART OF THE NATION AWAKE AND REFORM. Narrator: THE IMPASSIONED SERMONS LYMAN BEECHER WROTE AND DELIVERED ON SUCCESSIVE SUNDAYS ECHOED SENTIMENTS THAT HAD BEEN HEARD FOR AT LEAST HALF A CENTURY IN AMERICA. BUT BEECHER WAS SO ELOQUENT, AND THE SCOURGE OF ALCOHOL HAD BECOME SO PERVASIVE, THAT WHEN THOSE SERMONS WERE PUBLISHED, IT SET IN MOTION EVENTS EVEN HE COULD NOT HAVE IMAGINED. FOR THE NEXT 100 YEARS, AMERICANS WOULD ARGUE FIERCELY OVER WHAT TO DO ABOUT THE AGE- OLD PROBLEM OF DRUNKENNESS. THE BATTLE WOULD EVENTUALLY RESULT IN AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES--PROHIBITION. IT WAS MEANT TO ERADICATE AN EVIL. INSTEAD, IT WOULD TURN MILLIONS OF LAW-ABIDING AMERICANS INTO LAW-BREAKERS. ["KING PORTER STOMP" PLAYING] Man: IT’S THIS QUESTION OF HOW MUCH CAN WE TELL OTHER PEOPLE ABOUT HOW TO LIVE THEIR LIVES? HOW MUCH CAN WE REGULATE SOCIETY? CAN WE REALLY FIX ALL THE PROBLEMS THAT WE SEE AROUND US? IT’S THE GREAT EXAMPLE OF WHAT HAPPENS WHEN DIFFERENT GROUPS HAVE DIFFERENT IDEAS ABOUT WHAT KIND OF BEHAVIOR IS ACCEPTABLE. Narrator: PROHIBITION WOULD PIT THE COUNTRYSIDE AGAINST THE CITIES, NATIVES AGAINST NEWCOMERS, PROTESTANTS AGAINST CATHOLICS. IT WOULD RAISE QUESTIONS ABOUT THE PROPER ROLE OF GOVERNMENT, ABOUT INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES, ABOUT MEANS AND ENDS AND UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES, AND WHO IS--AND WHO IS NOT--A REAL AMERICAN. Man: HOW THE HELL DID THAT HAPPEN? HOW DOES A FREEDOM-LOVING PEOPLE, A NATION THAT’S BUILT ON INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES, DECIDE IN ONE KIND OF CRAZED MOMENT, IT ALMOST SEEMS, THAT WE CAN TELL PEOPLE HOW TO LIVE THEIR LIVES? Man: VIRTUALLY EVERY PART OF THE CONSTITUTION IS ABOUT EXPANDING HUMAN FREEDOM EXCEPT PROHIBITION, IN WHICH HUMAN FREEDOM WAS BEING LIMITED. WHEN PEOPLE CROSS THE LINE BETWEEN OUR ESSENTIAL CHARACTER AS AMERICANS AND SOME OTHER SUPERSEDING VISION OF WHAT WE SHOULD BE, THEN WE GET IN TROUBLE. Man: THEY SAY THAT THE BRITISH CANNOT FIX ANYTHING PROPERLY WITHOUT A DINNER. BUT I AM SURE THE AMERICANS CAN FIX NOTHING WITHOUT A DRINK. IF YOU MEET, YOU DRINK; IF YOU MAKE ACQUAINTANCE, YOU DRINK; IF YOU CLOSE A BARGAIN, YOU DRINK. THEY DRINK BECAUSE IT IS HOT; THEY DRINK BECAUSE IT IS COLD. IF SUCCESSFUL IN ELECTIONS, THEY DRINK AND REJOICE; IF NOT, THEY DRINK AND SWEAR. THEY BEGIN TO DRINK EARLY IN THE MORNING; THEY LEAVE OFF LATE AT NIGHT; THEY COMMENCE IT EARLY IN LIFE, AND THEY CONTINUE IT, UNTIL THEY SOON DROP INTO THE GRAVE. CAPTAIN FREDERICK MARRYAT. Narrator: FOR MOST OF THE NATION’S HISTORY, ALCOHOL WAS AT LEAST AS AMERICAN AS APPLE PIE. THE HOLD OF THE "MAYFLOWER," THE SHIP THAT CARRIED THE FIRST PURITANS TO MASSACHUSETTS, WAS FILLED WITH BARRELS OF BEER. AT VALLEY FORGE, GEORGE WASHINGTON DID HIS BEST TO MAKE SURE HIS MEN HAD HALF A CUP OF RUM EVERY DAY--AND HALF A CUP OF WHISKEY WHEN THE RUM RAN OUT. JOHN ADAMS BEGAN EACH DAY WITH A TANKARD OF HARD CIDER. THOMAS JEFFERSON COLLECTED FINE FRENCH WINES AND DREAMED OF A DAY WHEN AMERICAN VINEYARDS COULD MATCH THEM. AFTER ANDREW JACKSON’S INAUGURATION, SO MANY DRUNKEN ADMIRERS CROWDED INTO THE WHITE HOUSE, THE CELEBRATION HAD TO BE MOVED OUT ONTO THE LAWN TO SAVE THE FURNITURE. YOUNG ABRAHAM LINCOLN SOLD WHISKEY BY THE BARREL FROM HIS GROCERY STORE IN NEW SALEM, ILLINOIS. "INTOXICATING LIQUOR," HE LATER REMEMBERED, WAS "USED BY EVERYBODY, REPUDIATED BY NOBODY." A YOUNG MARYLAND SLAVE NAMED FREDERICK DOUGLASS SAID WHISKEY MADE HIM FEEL "LIKE A PRESIDENT," SELF-ASSURED "AND INDEPENDENT." PHYSICIANS RECOMMENDED WHISKEY-- AND CIDER AND BRANDY AND RUM AND BEER--AS FAR BETTER FOR THEIR PATIENTS THAN WATER HAULED FROM MUDDY RIVERS AND STAGNANT POOLS. CLERGYMEN DRANK. SO DID CRAFTSMEN AND CANAL- DIGGERS, AND THE CROWDS OF MEN WHO TURNED OUT FOR BARN-RAISINGS AND BAPTISMS, FUNERALS AND ELECTIONS AND PUBLIC HANGINGS. Lerner: IT’S PART OF RITUAL CELEBRATIONS. IT’S PART OF BEING SOCIAL. IT’S PART OF THE GATHERING. AND IT’S ALWAYS BEEN THERE. IT JUST TELLS YOU SOMETHING. MAYBE WE’LL NEVER REALLY HAVE AN ANSWER FOR WHY WE NEED IT. BUT IF YOU LOOK AT THE HISTORY, IT’S CLEAR WE DO. Narrator: AMERICANS ROUTINELY DRANK AT EVERY MEAL--INCLUDING BREAKFAST. IN MANY TOWNS A BELL RANG TWICE A DAY TO SIGNAL WHAT WAS CALLED "GROG-TIME" SO THAT MEN COULD STOP WHATEVER THEY WERE DOING IN FACTORIES AND OFFICES, MILLS AND FARM FIELDS TO RAISE A JUG. Okrent: IN FARM FAMILIES IN NEW ENGLAND PARTICULARLY, THERE WAS A BARREL OF CIDER BY THE DOOR, AND YOU CAME IN AND YOU WOULD HAVE YOUR LADLE OF CIDER. NOW THIS WASN’T AS POWERFUL AS WHISKEY, BUT YOU KNOW, IT WASN’T THE KIND OF CIDER THAT WE HAVE WITH DOUGHNUTS TODAY. Narrator: FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS, HUMAN BEINGS HAD BEEN FERMENTING FRUITS AND GRAINS TO CREATE MILDLY INTOXICATING BEVERAGES. BUT BY THE 1800s, RUM, WHISKEY, AND OTHER DISTILLED SPIRITS-- WITH SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER ALCOHOL CONTENT--HAD BECOME INCREASINGLY AVAILABLE. Woman: ALL OF A SUDDEN, YOU HAVE ALL OF THESE PEOPLE GROWING GRAIN--GROWING CORN, GROWING OATS, GROWING WHEAT-- THAT CAN BE DISTILLED INTO WHISKEY. AND SO ALL OF THESE RITUALS THAT HAD BEEN PART OF THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE WHERE FARMERS WOULD GET UP AND YOU WOULD HAVE BEER WITH BREAKFAST AND BEER WITH LUNCH AND BEER WITH YOUR AFTERNOON BREAK AND BEER WITH DINNER. BUT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT 2% BEER. BUT NOW ALL OF A SUDDEN, PEOPLE ARE DRINKING WHISKEY INSTEAD. AND IT TOOK A WHILE FOR THE CULTURE TO RECOGNIZE THAT, WAIT A MINUTE, THERE’S SOMETHING REALLY WRONG HERE. Narrator: BY 1830, THE AVERAGE AMERICAN OVER 15 YEARS OF AGE DRANK THE EQUIVALENT OF 88 BOTTLES OF WHISKEY EVERY YEAR, 3 TIMES AS MUCH AS THEIR 21st-CENTURY DESCENDANTS DRINK. AMERICANS SPENT MORE MONEY ON ALCOHOL EACH YEAR THAN THE TOTAL EXPENDITURES OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. "INEBRIATES" FILLED THE NATION’S POORHOUSES AND WORKHOUSES AND PRISONS. MORE AND MORE, PEOPLE BEGAN TO WORRY THAT THE COUNTRY WAS BECOMING A NATION OF DRUNKARDS. AND AS THE WAGES OF MANY HUSBANDS AND FATHERS AND SONS WENT TO THE GROG SHOP, WOMEN AND CHILDREN BECAME VICTIMS--MISTREATED, ABANDONED, DEPRIVED OF FOOD AND SHELTER. Murdock: ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION AT THAT POINT WAS A SIGN OF MASCULINITY THAT TOOK AWAY MASCULINITY. SO THAT YOU DRANK TO SHOW THAT YOU WERE A MAN, BUT YOU GET DRUNK, AND ALL OF A SUDDEN YOU CAN’T PROVIDE FOR YOUR FAMILY, YOU CAN’T DO YOUR JOB. YOU BECOME VIOLENT. THERE ARE SO MANY REFERENCES TO THE DEGRADATION OF SATURDAY NIGHT. IMPLICIT THAT A MAN WOULD GO OUT, FIRST OF ALL, HE WOULD LEAVE THE HOME. HE WOULD GO TO A SALOON. HE WOULD GET DRUNK, AND HE WOULD COME HOME AND DO WHATEVER HE WANTED. THIS IS A TIME WHEN THERE IS NO DIVORCE; WHEN THE CONCEPT OF POLICE PROTECTION FOR DOMESTIC VIOLENCE DOESN’T EXIST; THE CONCEPT OF MARITAL RAPE CAN’T BE DISCUSSED. BUT YOU CAN DISCUSS IT THROUGH ALCOHOLISM AND WHAT ALCOHOL DOES TO MEN. Narrator: ON APRIL 5, 1840, 6 HARD-DRINKING FRIENDS MET IN A TAVERN IN BALTIMORE AND PLEDGED TO ONE ANOTHER THAT THEY WOULD NEVER TAKE ANOTHER DRINK. THEY ESTABLISHED WHAT THEY PROUDLY CALLED A "SOCIETY OF REFORMED DRUNKARDS" AND NAMED IT AFTER THE FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC. WORD SPREAD. SOON WASHINGTONIAN SOCIETIES SPRANG UP IN EVERY STATE. AT MEETINGS ACROSS THE COUNTRY, THOUSANDS OF ALCOHOLICS, MANY IN TEARS, CAME FORWARD TO CONFESS THEIR OWN WEAKNESSES TO EACH OTHER AND SIGN THE WASHINGTONIAN PLEDGE. EVENTUALLY MORE THAN HALF A MILLION MEN WOULD ADD THEIR NAMES TO THE ROLLS. Okrent: THERE WAS A WAY THAT THE WASHINGTONIANS, BY TELLING THEIR OWN STORIES TO EACH OTHER AND TO PEOPLE THAT THEY WISHED TO RECRUIT, THERE WAS A GREAT DEAL OF POWER TO THAT. IT WAS VERY PERSONAL. IT WASN’T SOME AUTHORITATIVE OR AUTHORITARIAN FIGURE FROM ON HIGH TELLING YOU WHAT TO DO. IT WAS ONE-TO-ONE. Narrator: BUT CLERGYMEN DENOUNCED THE WASHINGTONIANS AS "UNGODLY" BECAUSE THEY DARED CLAIM DRUNKARDS COULD BE REFORMED BY THEIR FELLOW SUFFERERS WITHOUT JOINING ANY CHURCH. THE YOUNG COUNTRY WAS IN THE MIDST OF A NEW ERA OF REFORM, FUELED BY A PROTESTANT GREAT AWAKENING, THAT CALLED UPON EVERY BELIEVER TO HELP CLEANSE THE COUNTRY OF EVERY SORT OF SIN. THE SAME REFORMERS WHO WERE LEADING THE CRUSADE TO ABOLISH SLAVERY SAW DRINKING AND THE DAMAGE IT DID TO INDIVIDUALS, FAMILIES, AND COMMUNITIES AS NO LESS SINFUL, NO LESS CORRUPTING. THEY CALLED THEIR MOVEMENT "TEMPERANCE." AT FIRST, ADVOCATES PREACHED MERE MODERATION--ONLY ARDENT SPIRITS LIKE RUM AND WHISKEY WERE OFF-LIMITS. BUT SOON, MANY BEGAN DEMANDING TOTAL ABSTINENCE FROM ALL FORMS OF ALCOHOL--INSISTING ON CAPITAL "T"-- TOTAL--ABSTINENCE. NEW CHURCH-BASED ORGANIZATIONS SPRANG UP: THE SONS OF TEMPERANCE, KNIGHTS OF JERICHO, TEMPLARS OF HONOR AND TEMPERANCE; INDEPENDENT ORDER OF GOOD TEMPLARS. SOME TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES SPONSORED SEPARATE BRANCHES FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS. FREDERICK DOUGLASS, WHO HAD ESCAPED SLAVERY, TOOK THE PLEDGE OF TOTAL ABSTINENCE, SAYING "IF WE COULD BUT MAKE THE WORLD SOBER, WE WOULD HAVE NO SLAVERY... ALL GREAT REFORMS," HE SAID, "GO TOGETHER." TENS OF THOUSANDS OF BOYS AND GIRLS PLEDGED NEVER TO TOUCH ALCOHOL AND ENLISTED IN WHAT WAS CALLED THE COLD WATER ARMY. Man: WOMEN WERE VERY BIG IN THESE THINGS. THE FIRST EXPRESSIVE LIFE OF WOMEN IN AMERICA WAS IN THESE REFORM MOVEMENTS. THEY WERE ALMOST ALWAYS WHAT WERE CALLED AUXILIARIES. AN AUXILIARY WAS TO BE SOMETHING THAT WAS TO BE OF HELP ALONG THE WAY. BUT WHILE THE MEN ARE OFF WORKING OR DRINKING OR GOOFING OFF, THE WOMEN MORE AND MORE ORGANIZED. Narrator: ALTHOUGH IT WAS THOUGHT UNSEEMLY FOR WOMEN TO WORK ALONGSIDE MEN, EVEN IN THE CAUSE OF MORAL REFORM, THEY WOULD SOON PUT THEMSELVES AT THE CENTER OF THE STRUGGLE AGAINST ALCOHOL. WHEN SUSAN B. ANTHONY WAS REFUSED PERMISSION EVEN TO SPEAK AT A SONS OF TEMPERANCE MEETING, SHE WALKED OUT AND FORMED THE NATION’S FIRST WOMEN’S TEMPERANCE SOCIETY IN WHICH MEN COULD NEITHER VOTE NOR HOLD OFFICE. HER FRIEND ELIZABETH CADY STANTON BECAME THE ORGANIZATION’S FIRST PRESIDENT. FOR THE NEXT 50 YEARS, TEMPERANCE AND A FAR MORE RADICAL CAUSE, WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE, WOULD BE INEXTRICABLY LINKED. Lerner: THE EARLY TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT WAS NOT ABOUT GETTING EVERYONE ELSE TO GIVE UP ALCOHOL. I MEAN, IT WAS VOLUNTARY. YOU NEVER WOULD HAVE SUGGESTED THAT YOU FORCE PEOPLE TO DO IT BECAUSE THEN IT WASN’T SINCERE, IT WASN’T REAL REFORM. YOU HAD TO REALLY HAVE THIS COME FROM WITHIN. THEN YOU START TO GET THE ARGUMENT THAT, WELL, MAYBE WE DO NEED TO REGULATE THIS BECAUSE MAYBE WE HAVE A LOT OF PEOPLE IN OUR SOCIETY WHO DON’T HAVE THE STRENGTH OR THE MORAL FORTITUDE TO DO THIS THEMSELVES. Murdock: THERE IS A BELIEF IN HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY, THAT HUMANS CAN BE PERFECT. AND ALCOHOL IS THE FLY IN THE OINTMENT. YOU COULD HAVE A PERFECT MARRIAGE IF IT WEREN’T FOR ALCOHOL. YOU COULD HAVE A PERFECT HUSBAND IF IT WEREN’T FOR ALCOHOL. YOU COULD HAVE A PERFECT COMMUNITY IF IT WEREN’T FOR ALCOHOL. AND ALCOHOL, IN A WAY, BECOMES THE SCAPEGOAT FOR ALL OF THE FAILURES IN SOCIETY. IF YOU DIDN’T HAVE ALCOHOL YOU WOULDN’T HAVE POVERTY, YOU WOULDN’T HAVE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE. YOU CERTAINLY WOULDN’T HAVE PROSTITUTION. AND THE SOLUTION THAT THE PEOPLE IN THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT CAME UP WITH IS THAT THE ONLY MORAL SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM IS TO GET RID OF THE DRINK. Narrator: REFORMERS PETITIONED STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS, DEMANDING THAT TAVERNS AND HOTELS, GROCERIES AND APOTHECARY SHOPS, BE BARRED FROM SELLING ALCOHOL. MODERATES WARNED THEY WERE GOING TOO FAR. "VERY LITTLE GOOD," ONE CLERGYMAN WROTE, "HAS EVER BEEN DONE BY THE ABSOLUTE SHALL." Man: IT’S NOT THAT SIN IS SO TERRIBLE, IT’S THAT SIN IS VERY ATTRACTIVE. AND THAT’S WHY WE’RE ALWAYS TEMPTED TO DO IT. SO WHAT YOU NEED, THEN, IS TO HELP PEOPLE TO OVERCOME THIS TEMPTATION. AND IF NECESSARY, SOMETIMES, YOU HAVE TO MAKE SIN ILLEGAL. THERE WAS A SENSE OF THE EXTRAORDINARY DIFFICULTY OF OVERCOMING THE HURDLE, THE IDEA THAT THE TEMPTATION WAS SO POWERFUL THAT SOME PEOPLE, AT LEAST, PERHAPS THE LEAST-ADVANTAGED PEOPLE IN SOCIETY, JUST COULDN’T BE TRUSTED AND THAT THEREFORE SOMEONE NEEDED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT FROM THE OUTSIDE, NOT SO MUCH FOR THE SAKE OF THOSE PEOPLE AS FOR THE SAKE OF THEIR FAMILIES AND FOR THE SAKE OF THEIR CHILDREN. Narrator: IN 1851, NEAL DOW, THE WEALTHY MAYOR OF PORTLAND, MAINE, GATHERED THOUSANDS OF SIGNATURES ON A PETITION DEMANDING THE STATE LEGISLATURE ENACT A LAW TO BAN THE SALE OF ALCOHOL. FEW AMERICANS DRANK MORE THAN THE FISHERMEN AND LUMBERMEN, MILL-WORKERS AND HARDSCRABBLE FARMERS OF MAINE. IN PORTLAND ALONE, HOME TO FEWER THAN 10,000 PEOPLE, THERE WERE 200 LICENSED LIQUOR DEALERS AND PERHAPS 400 UNLICENSED ONES. BUT THROUGH NEAL DOW’S TIRELESS EFFORTS, THE BILL PASSED ON JUNE 2, 1851, AND FOR THE FIRST TIME, THE LEGISLATURE OF AN AMERICAN STATE VOTED TO PROHIBIT THE SALE AND MANUFACTURE OF INTOXICATING BEVERAGES. Woman: A REMARKABLE SPECTACLE CAN BE SEEN IN PORTLAND. TEMPERATE MEN, AND NOTHING BUT TEMPERATE MEN, WALK HER STREETS. A STRANGE QUIET PREVAILS. THE CLAMOR AND RIOTING AND FIERCE TURBULENCE OF DRUNKENNESS ARE NOWHERE TO BE SEEN. Narrator: WITH THE LAW NOW ON HIS SIDE, DOW PERSONALLY LED RAIDS ON LIQUOR SELLERS, AND WHEN AN ANGRY CROWD OF 3,000 MEN, MOST OF THEM IRISH IMMIGRANTS WHO SAW NOTHING WRONG WITH ALCOHOL, TURNED OUT TO PROTEST HIS ACTIONS, DOW CALLED OUT THE STATE MILITIA AND ORDERED THEM TO FIRE. [GUNSHOTS] 7 MEN WERE WOUNDED. ONE WAS KILLED. MAYOR DOW’S CRITICS DENOUNCED HIM AS "THE SUBLIME FANATIC;" HIS ADMIRERS INSISTED HE WAS AMERICA’S "MORAL COLUMBUS." MEANWHILE, MANY OF HIS STATE’S MORE ENTERPRISING CITIZENS QUICKLY FOUND WAYS TO PROFIT FROM LOOPHOLES IN HIS LAW. FISHERMEN UP AND DOWN MAINE’S LONG, ROCKY COAST SMUGGLED ALCOHOL ASHORE IN COFFINS, AND BARRELS MARKED "SUGAR" AND "FLOUR." FORBIDDEN TO SELL LIQUOR, BARTENDERS BEGAN CHARGING HANDSOME FEES FOR SALTED CRACKERS--THEN THREW IN A DRINK FOR "FREE." ALCOHOL FOR MEDICINAL PURPOSES WAS PERMITTED--SO MAINE PHYSICIANS WROTE PRESCRIPTIONS TO BOOST THEIR INCOMES. ITINERANT LIQUOR-SELLERS ROAMED THE STREETS SELLING SWIGS FROM PINT BOTTLES HIDDEN BENEATH THEIR PANT-LEGS. THEIR CUSTOMERS CALLED THEM BOOT-LEGGERS. Okrent: OVER TIME THE LAW DECAYED. IT DIDN’T HOLD UP. AND IN FACT MANY OTHER STATES PASSED SIMILAR LAWS AS THE MAINE LAW, BUT BY 1860 EVERY ONE OF THEM IS OFF THE BOOKS. Narrator: BY 1860, THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT, LIKE WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE AND OTHER REFORMS OF THE DAY, FOUND ITSELF OVERSHADOWED-- FIRST BY THE MOUNTING STRUGGLE OVER SLAVERY AND THEN BY THE CIVIL WAR FOUGHT TO SETTLE IT. [EXPLOSIONS] MEMBERSHIP IN TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES DWINDLED. SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS ALIKE CONTINUED TO DRINK, IN PART TO MASK THE GRIEF AND HORROR OF THE WAR RAGING AROUND THEM. AND IN 1862, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ITSELF, HUNGRY FOR REVENUES TO PAY FOR THE WAR, HELPED TO LEGITIMIZE THE LIQUOR TRADE BY CHARGING RETAILERS A $20 LICENSE FEE AND TAXING MANUFACTURERS 20 CENTS FOR EVERY GALLON OF DISTILLED SPIRITS THEY PRODUCED AND A DOLLAR FOR EVERY KEG OF BEER. WITHIN A FEW YEARS, FULLY 1/3 OF THE FEDERAL BUDGET WOULD COME FROM TAXING ALCOHOL. AFTER THE CIVIL WAR ENDED, HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF IMMIGRANTS--IRISH AND GERMANS AND BOHEMIANS AND OTHERS FROM CENTRAL AND NORTHERN EUROPE--BEGAN POURING INTO AMERICA’S GROWING CITIES AND SPREAD OUT ACROSS THE COUNTRYSIDE. THEY WERE EAGER TO CREATE NEW LIVES BUT UNWILLING TO GIVE UP OLD WAYS, INCREASING TENSIONS WITH NATIVE-BORN CITIZENS, WHO THOUGHT THEY KNEW BEST HOW AMERICANS SHOULD BEHAVE. Feldman: NEW IMMIGRANTS CAME WITH NOT ONLY A DIFFERENT CULTURE, BUT ALSO WITH A DIFFERENT SET OF DRINKING HABITS. AND THAT IMMEDIATELY BECAME PART OF THE AMERICAN DEBATE ABOUT WHETHER CERTAIN PEOPLE WERE DRINKING THE WRONG KIND OF ALCOHOL AND TOO MUCH OF IT. Narrator: EBERHARD ANHEUSER, VALENTIN BLATZ, ADOLPHUS BUSCH, BERNHARD STROH, FREDERICK MILLER, FREDERICK PABST, FREDERICK AND MAXIMILIAN SCHAEFER, JOSEPH SCHLITZ--A HOST OF GERMAN-AMERICAN ENTREPRENEURS MADE THEMSELVES RICH SATISFYING THE NEW IMMIGRANTS’ THIRST FOR BEER. IN 1850, THEY HAD BREWED JUST 36 MILLION GALLONS. BY 1870, THEIR OUTPUT HAD SOARED TO MORE THAN 550 MILLION. TO PROTECT THEIR BUSINESS INTERESTS, THEY FORMED A LOBBYING ORGANIZATION-- THE UNITED STATES BREWERS’ ASSOCIATION, CONDUCTING THEIR MEETINGS AND THEIR COMMUNICATIONS IN GERMAN. ALARMED AT THE GROWING POWER OF THE BREWERS’ LOBBY, AND THE STEADY INCREASE IN BEER DRINKING ALL ACROSS THE COUNTRY, THE FORCES OF TEMPERANCE, DORMANT SINCE BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR, BEGAN TO STIR AGAIN. Woman: EVERY WHIRLWIND HAS ITS FIRST LEAF, FOR THE LAWS OF MOTION OBLIGE IT TO BEGIN SOMEWHERE IN PARTICULAR. THE WHIRLWIND OF THE LORD BEGAN IN THE LITTLE TOWN OF HILLSBORO ON THE 23rd OF DECEMBER, 1873. Narrator: HILLSBORO, OHIO, WAS THE HOME OF A FRAIL WIFE AND MOTHER NAMED ELIZA JANE THOMPSON, THE DAUGHTER OF AN OHIO GOVERNOR. LIKE SO MANY TEMPERANCE WORKERS, SHE HAD EXPERIENCED THE IMPACT OF ALCOHOLISM FIRST-HAND: HER ELDEST SON, A CLERGYMAN, HAD BECOME ADDICTED THROUGH A DOCTOR’S PRESCRIPTION AND THEN DIED IN WHAT WAS CALLED AN "INEBRIATE ASYLUM." ALL SHE HAD BEEN ABLE TO DO WAS GRIEVE UNTIL THE EVENING OF DECEMBER 23, 1873, WHEN A VISITING TEMPERANCE LECTURER URGED THE TOWN’S WIVES AND MOTHERS TO TAKE TO THE STREETS IN PROTEST. IF THEY DID THAT, HE SAID, THEY COULD DESTROY THE LIQUOR BUSINESS FOREVER. THOMPSON’S HUSBAND, A LOCAL JUDGE, THOUGHT THE IDEA OF WOMEN MARCHING IN PUBLIC SHEER "TOMFOOLERY." Woman as Eliza Jane Thompson: I VENTURED TO REMIND HIM THAT THE MEN HAD BEEN IN THE "TOMFOOLERY" BUSINESS A LONG TIME, AND SUGGESTED THAT IT MIGHT BE GOD’S WILL THAT THE WOMEN SHOULD NOW TAKE PART. Narrator: ON CHRISTMAS EVE, ELIZA JANE THOMPSON JOINED NEARLY 200 OTHER WOMEN AT THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. AFTER PRAYERS, SHE LED THEM OUTSIDE, LINED UP TWO BY TWO, ALL DRESSED IN BLACK AND SINGING HER FAVORITE HYMN, "GIVE TO THE WINDS THY FEARS." THE WOMEN’S FIRST STOP WAS WILLIAM SMITH’S DRUG STORE ON EAST MAIN STREET. HE WAS A LICENSED PHYSICIAN, SO THEY ASKED HIM TO SIGN A PLEDGE, PROMISING NEVER AGAIN TO FULFILL ANY OTHER DOCTOR’S PRESCRIPTION FOR ALCOHOL. HE SIGNED. TWO OTHER DRUGGISTS ASSURED "THE LADIES," OF THEIR GOOD WISHES AND AGREED TO STOP SELLING ALCOHOL ENTIRELY. Murdock: WHAT YOU SEE IN ONE COMMUNITY IN OHIO IS THAT THE WOMEN SNAP. THEY GO OUT AND THEY GATHER IN FRONT OF A SALOON AND THEY GO DOWN ON THEIR KNEES AND THEY START PRAYING, BLOCKING THE ENTRANCE PRAYING, WHICH IS THIS ACT OF RADICAL CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE BUT THAT IS ALSO COMPLETELY WITHIN THE PARAMETERS OF ACCEPTED FEMALE BEHAVIOR. AND THE MOVEMENT TAKES OFF LIKE WILDFIRE. Narrator: WITHIN DAYS, WHAT CAME TO BE CALLED THE WOMAN’S CRUSADE SEEMED TO BE ERUPTING EVERYWHERE IN OHIO. Man: FROM LONDON, OHIO COMES THE NEWS THAT AN ABSOLUTE STAGNATION OF ALL BUSINESS EXISTS, THAT THE SCHOOLS HAVE CLOSED, AND EVERYBODY’S MIND IS WHOLLY ABSORBED WITH THE WAR. PORTABLE TABERNACLES IN WHICH THE WOMEN PRAY AND SING ARE TRANSFERRED FROM THE FRONT OF ONE SALOON TO ANOTHER. Woman: COSHOCTON, OHIO. IT IS EASY ENOUGH TO CONQUER A MAN, IF YOU ONLY KNOW HOW. I WISH YOU COULD SEE ME TALKING TO SOME OF THESE SALOON MEN THAT I WOULD NEVER HAVE SPOKEN TO BEFORE. I EMPLOY MY SWEETEST ACCENTS; I EXHAUST ALL THE ARGUMENTS I AM POSSESSED OF; I LOOK INTO THEIR EYES AND GROW PATHETIC; I SHED TEARS, AND I JOKE WITH THEM--BUT ALL IN TERRIBLE EARNEST. AND THEY SURRENDER. ELIZA HACKETT. Narrator: BUT BIGGER TOWNS, LIKE DAYTON, WITH THEIR LARGE IMMIGRANT POPULATIONS, PRESENTED BIGGER CHALLENGES. Man: A LARGE, TURBULENT RABBLE FOLLOWED THEM FROM PLACE TO PLACE. SWEARING CROWDS OF BEER- DRINKERS PRESSED INTO THE SALOONS AND DRANK AS FAST AS THEY COULD, MOCKING THE PRAYING WOMEN WITH LOUD BLASPHEMY. "THE NEW YORK TIMES." Narrator: IN CINCINNATI, FIRE COMPANIES SPRAYED THE PRAYING WOMEN WITH FREEZING WATER. BARTENDERS PRETENDED TO WELCOME THEM INSIDE, DRENCHED THEM WITH BUCKETS OF BEER, THEN DROVE THEM BACK OUT INTO THE SNOW. THE OWNER OF A GERMAN BEER GARDEN HAULED A CANNON UP TO THE ENTRANCE AND THREATENED TO BLOW AWAY THE FIRST CRUSADER WHO TRIED TO GET PAST HIM. ONE WOMAN CLIMBED ONTO THE CANNON AND LED HER SISTERS IN SONG. AFTER AN HOUR OR SO, THE OWNER SURRENDERED. THE CRUSADE SOON SPREAD BEYOND OHIO’S BORDERS--ALL THE WAY WEST TO SAN FRANCISCO, WHERE AN ANGRY MOB, SPURRED ON BY THE SAN FRANCISCO SALOON-KEEPER’S SOCIETY, HURLED STONES AT A BAND OF PEACEFUL, PRAYING WOMEN. WOMEN EVENTUALLY MARCHED IN 911 COMMUNITIES IN 31 STATES AND TERRITORIES. THEY CLOSED DOWN SOME 1,300 LIQUOR SELLERS. FOR THE THOUSANDS OF WOMEN WHO TOOK PART IN THE CRUSADE AND WHO HAD NEVER BEFORE FELT THEY COULD ACT ON THEIR OWN OUTSIDE THEIR HOMES, IT HAD BEEN WHAT ONE TEMPERANCE WORKER CALLED A "BAPTISM OF POWER AND LIBERTY." Woman: IT CAN SCARCELY BE POSSIBLE THAT THESE WOMEN CAN AGAIN SETTLE BACK IN THE OLD RUTS AND BETAKE THEMSELVES ONCE MORE TO HEMMING FLOUNCES, AS IF THE ISSUE OF LIFE DEPENDED ON THE AMOUNT OF STITCHES THEY STOWED INTO EACH GARMENT. THEY CAN HARDLY EVER AGAIN PERSUADE THEMSELVES OR OTHERS THAT THEY ARE CONTENT TO LET THE MEN ATTEND TO THE POLITICS OF THE COUNTRY, WHILE THEY PLAY PRETTY POLLY OR BRIDGET. Murdock: BUT ALL OF A SUDDEN, IT SORT OF HITS YOU HOW MUCH WORK CIVIL PROTEST IS. AND IF YOU’RE OUT THERE PRAYING, YOU’RE NOT FEEDING YOUR FAMILY, YOU’RE NOT DOING ALL OF YOUR HOUSEWORK. AND THE MOMENTUM OF THE MOVEMENT BREAKS DOWN, AND GRADUALLY THESE SALOONS START REOPENING. Narrator: NO LAWS HAD BEEN CHANGED. MEN STILL WANTED A DRINK. WITHIN A YEAR OR TWO, MOST LIQUOR DEALERS WERE BACK IN BUSINESS, ALONGSIDE A STEADILY GROWING NUMBER OF COMPETITORS. Murdock: EVERYTHING THAT THEY HAD WORKED SO HARD FOR SORT OF FALLS APART. AND IT BECOMES INCREASINGLY CLEAR TO THEM THAT THIS MODEL OF MORAL SUASION, OF SETTING A GOOD EXAMPLE, ISN’T GOING TO CUT IT. Woman: IT HAS COME AND IT HAS GONE--THIS WHIRLWIND OF THE LORD--BUT IT HAS SET FORCES IN MOTION WHICH EACH DAY BECOME MORE POTENT, AND IT WILL SWEEP ON UNTIL THE RUM POWER IN AMERICA IS OVERTHROWN. FRANCES WILLARD. Narrator: FRANCES ELIZABETH CAROLINE WILLARD WAS HERSELF A WHIRLWIND. CALLED "SAINT FRANCES" BY HER MOST ARDENT ADMIRERS, SHE WAS A MASTER STRATEGIST WHO WOULD COME TO COMMAND A NONVIOLENT NATIONAL ARMY--250,000 STRONG-- AGAINST ALCOHOL: THE WOMAN’S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION. Murdock: FRANCES WILLARD IS ONE OF THE GREAT UNSUNG HEROES OF AMERICAN HISTORY. THERE WAS A TIME WHEN EVERY SCHOOLCHILD IN AMERICA KNEW HER, AND SHE WAS SORT OF ON PAR WITH BETSY ROSS. SHE WAS THAT IMPORTANT TO AMERICAN HISTORY. Narrator: A PIONEER IN WOMEN’S EDUCATION AND A CHAMPION OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS, WILLARD TOOK THE REINS OF THE WCTU IN 1879 AND DID NOT RELINQUISH THEM UNTIL HER DEATH 19 YEARS LATER. AT "REST COTTAGE," HER HOME IN EVANSTON, ILLINOIS, SHE ROSE AT 6:00 EACH DAY AND FOR 8 HOURS STRAIGHT DICTATED LETTERS, SPEECHES, ARTICLES, AND BOOKS TO HER SECRETARY AND LONGTIME COMPANION, ANNA GORDON. BUT THE TWO WOMEN WERE RARELY AT HOME. DURING THE FIRST 9 YEARS OF HER PRESIDENCY, WILLARD CLAIMED SHE HAD SPOKEN IN MORE THAN 1,000 AMERICAN TOWNS--INCLUDING EVERY SINGLE CITY WITH MORE THAN 10,000 CITIZENS-- AND MOST OF THOSE WITH ONLY 5,000. SHE TOOK HER STRUGGLE ABROAD AS WELL, FOUNDING A WORLD’S WCTU THAT GATHERED NEARLY A MILLION SIGNATURES ON A CANVAS PETITION ADDRESSED TO ALL THE RULERS OF THE WORLD, IMPLORING THEM TO JOIN HANDS IN A GLOBAL BAN ON ALCOHOL. Woman as Frances Willard: THERE IS A WAR ABOUT THIS IN AMERICA, A WAR OF MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS, SISTERS AND WIVES, A WAR BETWEEN THE RUM SHOPS AND RELIGION, A WAR TO THE KNIFE AND THE KNIFE TO THE HILT. ONLY ONE CAN WIN. THE QUESTION IS WHICH ONE IS IT GOING TO BE? Narrator: WILLARD FORGED AN ALLIANCE BETWEEN THE WCTU AND THE WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT, BRINGING THOUSANDS OF WOMEN INTO THE STRUGGLE FOR THE BALLOT. TO APPEAL TO WOMEN STILL TOO TIMID TO ASSERT THEMSELVES, WILLARD COINED A CONSCIOUSLY CONSERVATIVE SLOGAN--"HOME PROTECTION." A WOMAN WHO FOUND IT UNSEEMLY TO DEMAND THE VOTE SOLELY AS A RIGHT COULD JUSTIFY CALLING FOR THE BALLOT AS WHAT WILLARD CALLED "A WEAPON OF PROTECTION FROM THE TYRANNY OF DRINK." AND CONCERNED THAT A GROWING NUMBER OF HOUSEWIVES WERE BECOMING ADDICTED TO POPULAR PATENT MEDICINES THAT OFTEN CONTAINED AS MUCH ALCOHOL AS WHISKEY, SHE ESTABLISHED "HOMES FOR INEBRIATE WOMEN." AS A PURE AND WHOLESOME ALTERNATIVE TO ALCOHOL, THE WCTU INSTALLED PUBLIC WATER FOUNTAINS IN VILLAGE SQUARES AND CITY PARKS ACROSS AMERICA. BUT GETTING RID OF ALCOHOL WAS NOT FRANCES WILLARD’S ONLY CAUSE. THE WCTU EVENTUALLY HAD MORE THAN 45 "DEPARTMENTS" ORGANIZED ON BEHALF OF A HOST OF CAUSES: STREET CHILDREN AND FALLEN WOMEN, FEMALE MATRONS FOR WOMEN’S PRISONS, AND FREE KINDERGARTEN FOR EVERY CHILD, EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK, AND RAISING THE AGE OF SEXUAL CONSENT FROM 10 TO 16. Okrent: AND SHE WOULD MOVE FROM ALCOHOL TO VOTES FOR WOMEN TO ORPHANAGES TO ASYLUMS TO WHAT SHE CALLED CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM--ALL THESE THINGS PUT TOGETHER. IT WAS SORT OF PROMISING A HEAVEN ON EARTH, AN IDEALIZED SOCIETY AT A TIME WHEN UTOPIAN WISHES WERE NOT AT ALL UNCOMMON IN AMERICAN SOCIETY. Narrator: BUT NO SINGLE PROGRAM HAD MORE IMPACT THAN THE DEPARTMENT OF SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE INSTRUCTION, MEANT TO TRAIN GENERATIONS OF BOYS AND GIRLS DEDICATED TO ERADICATING ALCOHOL--AND TO DO IT THROUGH THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM. Woman: CHILDHOOD SAVED TODAY FROM THE SALOON AND THE NATION THUS SAVED TOMORROW IS THE STAKE PLAYED FOR IN THIS DESPERATE GAME. ALL THAT IS HOLIEST IN MOTHER- LOVE, ALL THAT IS PUREST IN PATRIOTISM THAT WOULD SAVE THE COUNTRY FROM THE SALOON, ENTERS INTO OUR SUPPORT OF THESE TEXTBOOKS. MARY HANCHETT HUNT. Narrator: FRANCES WILLARD PLACED MARY HANCHETT HUNT IN CHARGE OF THE DEPARTMENT. HUNT LOBBIED STATE LEGISLATURES AND THE CONGRESS TO REQUIRE ANTI-ALCOHOL INDOCTRINATION IN THE SCHOOLS, FORCED TEXTBOOK PUBLISHERS TO CONFORM TO THE WCTU’s MESSAGE, AND SOMETIMES DEMANDED KICKBACKS IN EXCHANGE FOR HER STAMP OF APPROVAL. SHE ALSO DIRECTED WOMEN FROM CHAPTERS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY TO PRESSURE LOCAL SCHOOL BOARDS. BEFORE LONG, PUBLIC SCHOOL CHILDREN IN EVERY STATE--22 MILLION OF THEM--WERE SITTING THROUGH TEMPERANCE CLASSES 3 TIMES A WEEK. KINDERGARTNERS WERE TAUGHT TO CHANT, "TREMBLE KING ALCOHOL, WE SHALL GROW UP." OLDER CHILDREN STUDIED TEXTS FILLED WITH LURID MISINFORMATION CALCULATED TO TERRIFY: JUST ONE DRINK, SOME BOOKS ALLEGED, COULD BURN AWAY THE LINING OF THE THROAT AND STOMACH AND BEGIN EATING AWAY AT THE LIVER AND KIDNEYS. Murdock: YOU KNOW, LITTLE JOHNNY HAS ONE DRINK, AND THE NEXT PICTURE HE’S LYING IN THE GUTTER UNCONSCIOUS. ONE OF THEIR MOST NOTORIOUS THINGS IS THEY HAD DIAGRAMS OF BODY PARTS. YOU WOULD HAVE A DIAGRAM OF A STOMACH. AND THEN THEY HAD A DIAGRAM OF AN INEBRIATE’S STOMACH AND WHAT HAPPENS TO YOU. WELL, THE INEBRIATE’S STOMACH WAS FULL COLOR. Narrator: ALCOHOL CAUSED DEAFNESS, DROPSY, LUNACY, THEY CLAIMED--NOT ONLY IN THOSE WHO SWALLOWED IT, BUT IN THEIR CHILDREN AND THEIR CHILDREN’S CHILDREN. AND ALWAYS, SOME TEXTBOOKS WARNED, THERE WAS THE FEARFUL POSSIBILITY THAT DRINKING COULD SPARK SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION--BURSTING SUDDENLY INTO FATAL BLUE FLAME. MILLIONS OF CHILDREN CAME TO BELIEVE IT ALL, AND IT WOULD NOT BE TOO LONG, WILLARD PRAYED, BEFORE THEY ALL WERE OLD ENOUGH TO VOTE. Woman as Frances Willard: IN AMERICA, BALLOTS ARE BAYONETS. YOU THINK MAYBE THE CRUSADE IS DEAD AND ITS BANNER TRAILING IN THE DUST. I TELL YOU NO. Man: IN THE SALOONS, LIFE WAS DIFFERENT. MEN TALKED WITH GREAT VOICES, LAUGHED GREAT LAUGHS, AND THERE WAS AN ATMOSPHERE OF GREATNESS. HERE WAS SOMETHING MORE THAN THE COMMON EVERYDAY WHERE NOTHING HAPPENED. HERE LIFE WAS ALWAYS VERY LIVE, AND SOMETIMES EVEN LURID. TERRIBLE SALOONS MIGHT BE, BUT THEN THAT ONLY MEANT THEY WERE TERRIBLY WONDERFUL. JACK LONDON. Narrator: DESPITE THE WASHINGTONIANS, DESPITE THE WOMAN’S CRUSADE AND THE WCTU, DESPITE LEGIONS OF CLERGYMEN AND TEMPERANCE LECTURERS AND SCHOOL-BOOKS MEANT TO TERRIFY, MORE AND MORE SALOONS WERE OPENING EVERY DAY IN AMERICA. BY THE TURN OF THE NEW 20th CENTURY, THERE WOULD BE SOME 300,000, AS VARIED AS THE PEOPLE WHO PATRONIZED THEM. FOR MILLIONS OF WORKING MEN, SALOONS WERE A REFUGE--FROM LONG HOURS AT A CLERK’S DESK OR ON A FACTORY FLOOR OR DEEP IN A COAL MINE--AND FROM THE RESPONSIBILITIES REPRESENTED BY THE FAMILY WAITING AT HOME. "THE BRASS RAIL WAS MORE THAN A FOOTREST," ONE MAN REMEMBERED. "IT WAS A SYMBOL OF MASCULINITY EMANCIPATE, OF MANHOOD FREE TO PUT ITS FEET ON SOMETHING." Hamill: THEY WERE PLACES WHERE PEOPLE GOT UP AND SANG SONGS. THEY WERE PLACES WHERE THE LAUGHTER WENT ON AND ON. AND THE ASSUMPTION WAS, THEY WORKED SO HARD DURING THE WEEK IF THEY THOUGHT FRIDAY NIGHT BELONGED TO THEM AND THE BOYS, WHY NOT? YOU KNOW, THAT WAS PART OF THE DEAL. IT WAS ESSENTIAL TO THEIR SURVIVAL, THAT TO GET THROUGH A TOUGH LIFE AND HARD TIMES, PARTICULARLY FOR THE IMMIGRANTS IN A STRANGE COUNTRY, YOU KNOW, THAT’S NOT QUITE YOURS, I THINK IT WAS ESSENTIAL TO THEM THAT THEY HAD THIS. Lerner: THE SALOON IS SO MANY DIFFERENT THINGS TO DIFFERENT PEOPLE. IF YOU LIVED IN A SQUALID TENEMENT HOUSE, IT WAS YOUR LIVING ROOM. IT WAS YOUR SOCIAL CLUB. IT WAS MAYBE WHERE YOUR TRANSLATOR WAS. YOUR BARTENDER WAS THERE TO WATCH OUT FOR YOU. YOUR BARTENDER MIGHT HAVE DONE A LOT MORE FOR YOU THAN THE LOCAL PRIEST DID OR THE LOCAL COP. Narrator: BEER AND WHISKEY WERE NOT THE SALOON’S SOLE ATTRACTION. A MAN COULD CASH HIS PAYCHECK, PICK UP HIS MAIL IF HE DIDN’T YET HAVE AN ADDRESS OF HIS OWN, READ THE PAPER, LEARN ENGLISH, PLAY CARDS OR BILLIARDS, FIND OUT WHO WAS HIRING, EVEN GET HIMSELF A CITY JOB. BIG-CITY SALOON-KEEPERS OFTEN DOUBLED AS POLITICIANS, DOLING OUT PATRONAGE POSITIONS. IN 1890, 11 OF NEW YORK’S 24 ALDERMEN RAN BARS. IN EAST BOSTON’S WARD TWO, AN IRISH IMMIGRANT’S SON NAMED PATRICK J. KENNEDY USED PROFITS FROM TWO SALOONS AND A WINE AND SPIRITS IMPORT BUSINESS TO BEGIN TO BUILD THE POLITICAL MACHINE THAT WOULD ONE DAY HELP PUT HIS GRANDSON INTO THE WHITE HOUSE. UNIONS MET IN SALOONS. SO DID VETERANS’ GROUPS, FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS, AND IMMIGRANT ASSOCIATIONS. BALLOTS WERE CAST IN THEM; WAKES WERE HELD, AND SO WERE CHRISTENING PARTIES. Hamill: THEY WERE THE WORKING CLASS PRIVATE CLUBS. THE UPTOWN WHITE ANGLO-SAXON PROTESTANTS HAD THEIR CLUBS FOR THE SAME REASONS, YOU KNOW, EXCEPT THAT THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT, HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO BUY VENEZUELA? BUT IT WAS THE SAME ESSENTIAL THING--THAT THERE WERE CONTACTS GOING ON IN THESE ROUGH PLACES, AND THE MAJORITY OF THEM WERE NOT BUCKETS OF BLOOD, AS THEY CALLED THEM. THEY WERE NOT PLACES WHERE YOU WALKED IN AND YOU WERE HAULED OUT BY AN AMBULANCE. THEY WERE MUCH MORE CLUBS. MOST OF THEM HAD BASIC RULES: PAY YOUR DEBTS, VOTE THE STRAIGHT TICKET, THAT SORT OF THING. Narrator: REGULARS MAY HAVE SEEN THEIR CORNER TAVERNS AS FAMILIAR NEIGHBORHOOD BUSINESSES, BUT MORE OFTEN THAN NOT THEY ACTUALLY BELONGED TO ONE OR ANOTHER OF THE BIG BREWERS. Okrent: BREWING COMPANIES OWNED THE SALOONS, AND IF PABST OPENED A SALOON ON THIS CORNER, BUSCH WAS GOING TO HAVE ONE ON THIS CORNER, AND SOMEBODY WAS GOING TO HAVE ONE ON THIS CORNER AND THIS CORNER, AND THE CITIES WERE OVERWHELMED BY THE BREWERY-OWNED SALOONS. Narrator: BY AGREEING TO SELL JUST ONE BRAND OF BEER, ALMOST ANYONE COULD GO INTO THE SALOON BUSINESS. THE BREWERY PAID FOR HIS LICENSE, PROVIDED THE POOL TABLE AND ARTWORK, THE BAR AND BARSTOOLS, EVEN THE SPITTOONS-- EVERYTHING NEEDED TO KEEP ITS BEER FLOWING. Okrent: THEY WOULD DO ANYTHING TO SELL BEER. THE FREE LUNCH--YOU SAY THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH? WELL, IN THE 1890s AND THE COUPLE OF DECADES THEREAFTER, THE FREE LUNCH WAS SOMETHING THAT WAS SERVED IN NEARLY EVERY SALOON. YOU WOULD GO IN, AND YOU WOULD GET YOUR CHEESE AND YOUR SALAMI AND YOUR SARDINES AND YOUR SALTINES, AND WHAT DID THESE THINGS HAVE IN COMMON? THEY’RE INCREDIBLY SALTY, AND SO YOU WOULD DRINK A LOT OF BEER. IT WAS A WONDERFUL MARKETING DEVICE. Narrator: DECENT CITIZENS WERE APPALLED THAT MOST BIG CITIES HAD A CAREFULLY DELINEATED "DISTRICT" IN WHICH VICE, ALTHOUGH TECHNICALLY ILLEGAL, WAS TOLERATED, A PLACE WHERE PIMPS AND THUGS AND STRONG-ARM MEN WORKED HAND-IN-HAND WITH CORRUPT COPS AND ACCOMMODATING POLITICIANS. AND ALL OF THEM WERE CENTERED AROUND SALOONS. IN MANHATTAN, IT WAS THE MIDTOWN TENDERLOIN, DENOUNCED BY REFORMERS AS "SATAN’S CIRCUS." NEW ORLEANS HAD ITS STORYVILLE. SAN FRANCISCO-- THE BARBARY COAST. IN SEATTLE, IT WAS NAMED FOR THE STREET ALONG WHICH LUMBERMEN SKIDDED LOGS TO THE DOCKS BEFORE LOOKING FOR A PLACE TO HAVE A DRINK--"SKID ROAD." IN CHICAGO’S NOTORIOUS LEVEE DISTRICT--20 SQUARE BLOCKS ON THE SOUTH SIDE--THERE WERE SAID TO BE 500 SALOONS, 500 WHOREHOUSES, 56 POOLROOMS, 15 GAMBLING HALLS, AND TOO MANY PEEP SHOWS AND COCAINE PARLORS AND BAWDY THEATERS TO COUNT. ALL OF IT WAS OVERSEEN BY A FLAMBOYANT SALOON-KEEPER AND DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEEMAN, MIKE "HINKY-DINK" KENNA. Man: HE HAD A TAVERN, AND HE WAS THE ALDERMAN OF THE FIRST WARD. OF COURSE IF YOU DON’T THINK THAT’S A CONFLICT--TO OWN A TAVERN AND BE THE ALDERMAN AT THE SAME TIME. BUT HE CONTROLLED THE LEVEE, AND OF COURSE IF YOU CONTROL THE LEVEE YOU CONTROLLED ALL THE VOTES. THEY COULD ELECT MICKEY MOUSE BECAUSE THEY’D TELL YOU WHO TO VOTE FOR, AND THEY DID. Lerner: IT FOSTERED A LOT OF CORRUPTION. THE BAR BECAME COMPLETELY INTERTWINED WITH POLITICS IN A LOT OF CITIES, SO YOU COULD BUY VOTES WITH A WHISKEY AND A CIGAR. YOU COULD ALWAYS MAKE THE ARGUMENT THAT THE SALOON WAS A PLACE WHERE MORALS WERE LOOSE, WHERE PROSTITUTION WAS A DANGER, WHERE PEOPLE WERE TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF. Murdock: MY GREAT-GRANDMOTHER REMEMBERS AS A CHILD WALKING THE STREETS OF PHILADELPHIA AND CROSSING THE STREET SO SHE WOULD NOT HAVE TO CROSS IN FRONT OF A SALOON BECAUSE IT WAS SO SCARY--THE NOISES THAT WERE COMING OUT OF IT, THE MEN LYING IN THE GUTTER DRUNK IN FRONT OF IT. THAT WAS THE FACE OF ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION. Man: ONE OF THE TERRIFYING STORIES OF MY CHILDHOOD WAS MY MOTHER TELLING ME WHAT IT WAS LIKE. SHE WAS AN IRISH IMMIGRANT GROWING UP IN HELL’S KITCHEN ON THE WEST SIDE OF MANHATTAN. OF THE MEN WHO WOULD BE PAID ON SATURDAY AFTERNOON, AND TAKING IT DIRECTLY TO THE SALOON, COMING HOME DRUNKEN, ABUSIVE, WITH ALL THE MONEY GONE AND THE MOTHER TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW SHE WAS GOING TO HOLD THE FAMILY TOGETHER, HOW THE CHILDREN WERE GOING TO BE FED. AND AS A LITTLE BOY, IDENTIFYING MYSELF WITH THOSE CHILDREN, I WONDERED HOW I WAS GOING TO BE FED. Narrator: THE ONLY WAY TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF DRUNKENNESS, MANY BELIEVED, WAS TO GET RID OF THE SALOON. Woman: WHEN I WENT TO MEDICINE LODGE, KANSAS, THERE WERE 7 DIVES WHERE DRINKS WERE SOLD. I BEGAN TO ASK, WHY SHOULD WE HAVE THE SALOON, WHEN KANSAS WAS A PROHIBITION STATE AND OUR CONSTITUTION MADE IT A CRIME TO MANUFACTURE, BARTER, SELL OR GIVE AWAY INTOXICATING DRINKS? THESE DIVE-KEEPERS REALLY WERE NOT AS MUCH TO BLAME AS THE CITY OFFICIALS WHO WERE IN LEAGUE WITH THIS LAWLESS ELEMENT AND COULD SEE "THE WICKED WALKING ON EVERY SIDE AND THE VILEST MEN EXALTED." CARRY NATION. Narrator: CARRY NATION’S LIFE WAS FILLED WITH TRAGEDY. HER MOTHER DIED IN AN INSANE ASYLUM, CONVINCED SHE WAS QUEEN VICTORIA. HER FIRST HUSBAND DRANK HIMSELF TO DEATH. A SECOND UNHAPPY MARRIAGE WOULD END IN DIVORCE. SHE DETERMINED TO GIVE HERSELF OVER TO THE STRUGGLE AGAINST WHAT SHE CALLED "THE PLACE WHERE THE SERPENT DRINK CRUSHED THE HOPES OF MY EARLY YEARS"--THE SALOON. KANSAS HAD ALREADY BANNED THE SALE OF ALCOHOL IN EVERY ONE OF ITS 105 COUNTIES, BUT THE STATE’S DUSTY COW TOWNS AND LARGE CITIES ALIKE WERE FILLED WITH THIRSTY MEN, AND NO ONE PAID MUCH ATTENTION TO THE LAW. AS PRESIDENT OF THE BARBER COUNTY WCTU, CARRY NATION HAD LED PEACEFUL MARCHES THAT HAD HAD LITTLE EFFECT, WROTE LETTERS TO LEGISLATORS AND LAWMEN THAT WERE NEVER EVEN ANSWERED, AND EVENTUALLY BECAME CONVINCED GOD WISHED HER TO DO MORE. Woman as Carrie Nation: ON THE 6th OF JUNE, 1900, BEFORE RETIRING, I THREW MYSELF DOWNWARD AT THE FOOT OF MY BED AND TOLD THE LORD TO USE ME IN ANY WAY TO SUPPRESS THE DREADFUL CURSE OF LIQUOR. I TOLD HIM I WISHED I HAD A THOUSAND LIVES THAT I WOULD GIVE HIM ALL OF THEM, AND I WANTED HIM TO MAKE IT KNOWN TO ME SOME WAY. THE NEXT MORNING, BEFORE I AWOKE, I HEARD THESE WORDS VERY DISTINCTLY. "GO TO KIOWA, AND I’LL STAND BY YOU." Narrator: THE NEXT MORNING, WITH AN ARMLOAD OF WHAT SHE CALLED "SMASHERS"--ROCKS AND BOTTLES WRAPPED IN PAPER TO LOOK LIKE HARMLESS PACKAGES--SHE STRODE INTO A SALOON IN KIOWA. Woman as Carrie Nation: I TOLD THE OWNER, MR. DOBSON, "GET OUT OF THE WAY. "I DON’T WANT TO STRIKE YOU, BUT I AM GOING TO BREAK UP THIS DEN OF VICE." [GLASS BREAKS] I BEGAN TO THROW AT THE MIRROR AND THE BOTTLES BELOW THE MIRROR. MR. DOBSON AND HIS COMPANION JUMPED INTO A CORNER, SEEMED VERY MUCH TERRIFIED. FROM THAT I WENT TO ANOTHER SALOON, UNTIL I HAD DESTROYED 3. THE OTHER DIVE-KEEPERS CLOSED UP, STOOD IN FRONT OF THEIR PLACES AND WOULD NOT LET ME IN. BY THIS TIME THE STREETS WERE CROWDED WITH PEOPLE. ONE BOY ABOUT 15 YEARS OLD SEEMED PERFECTLY WILD WITH JOY. I HAVE SINCE THOUGHT OF THAT BEING A SIGNIFICANT SIGN. FOR TO SMASH SALOONS WILL SAVE THE BOY. Narrator: SHE DARED THE SHERIFF TO ARREST HER. HE DID NOT. SHE MOVED ON TO WICHITA TO ATTACK THE MOST OPULENT SALOON IN TOWN, THE BAR IN THE HOTEL CAREY. [GLASS BREAKS] WHEN A POLICEMAN ARRESTED HER THERE FOR DEFACING PROPERTY, SHE SHOUTED AT HIM, "I AM DEFACING NOTHING! I AM DESTROYING!" "YOU PUT ME IN HERE A CUB," SHE SAID FROM BEHIND BARS, "BUT I WILL GO OUT A ROARING LION, AND I WILL MAKE ALL HELL HOWL!" HER EXPLOITS WERE FRONT-PAGE NEWS. HUNDREDS OF CONGRATULATORY TELEGRAMS ARRIVED FROM ALL OVER THE COUNTRY. AS SOON AS SHE GOT OUT, SHE ATTACKED ANOTHER SALOON, THIS TIME WITH THE WEAPON THAT WOULD BECOME HER SYMBOL--A HATCHET. JAILED AND RELEASED ONCE MORE, SHE MOVED ON TO THE TOWN OF ENTERPRISE, DID FURTHER DAMAGE THERE, AND THEN APPEARED IN TOPEKA, THE STATE CAPITAL AND HOME TO DOZENS OF FLOURISHING SALOONS, ALL OF THEM ILLEGAL. THE LEADERS OF THE TOPEKA WCTU DECLARED THEMSELVES "NOT IN ACCORD WITH HER METHODS." "I TELL YOU LADIES," SHE ANSWERED, "YOU DON’T "KNOW HOW MUCH JOY YOU WILL HAVE UNTIL YOU BEGIN TO SMASH, SMASH, SMASH." THE GOVERNOR IMPLORED HER NOT TO DO ANY MORE DAMAGE. SHE TOLD HIM THAT IF HE DIDN’T ENFORCE THE LAW, SHE HAD NO CHOICE. "YOU ARE A WOMAN," HE SAID, AND "A WOMAN MUST KNOW A WOMAN’S PLACE." SHE WALKED OUT OF HIS OFFICE AND CALLED FOR A "HATCHETATION." MANY KANSANS BELIEVED NATION WAS AT LEAST HALF-MAD, BUT HUNDREDS OF WOMEN AND A SMALLER NUMBER OF MEN RALLIED TO HER, BRINGING THEIR OWN STONES AND BRICKS, STICKS AND HATCHETS, AND CALLING THEMSELVES THE HOME DEFENDERS’ ARMY. PROPRIETORS OF THE LOCAL SALOONS TRIED AND FAILED TO STOP THEM. SHE AND HER FOLLOWERS TORE APART A JOINT FAVORED BY STATE LEGISLATORS CALLED THE SENATE, THEN WENT ON TO SMASH A SECOND BAR, A BARN FILLED WITH SALOON FIXTURES AND A WAREHOUSE STACKED HIGH WITH BARRELS OF BEER. THAT DAY CARRY NATION WAS JAILED AND RELEASED 4 TIMES. WITHIN THE MONTH, HER ADMIRERS WOULD ATTACK MORE THAN 100 SALOONS IN AT LEAST 50 KANSAS TOWNS. ANXIOUS STATE LEGISLATORS RUSHED THROUGH A BILL TO STRENGTHEN ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAW AND PACIFY HER AND HER HOME-DEFENDERS’ ARMY. IT WAS A REMARKABLE VICTORY. CARRY NATION HOPED HER MOVEMENT WOULD SPREAD ACROSS THE COUNTRY AND SWEEP AWAY ALL OF THE NATION’S SALOONS. BUT ONCE AGAIN, LIKE THE WOMAN’S CRUSADE, IT DIED ALMOST AS QUICKLY AS IT HAD ARISEN. CARRY NATION NEVER STOPPED CRUSADING--IN SALOONS AND CHURCHES, LECTURE HALLS, EVEN ON THE VAUDEVILLE STAGE. FOR MANY, SHE BECAME A FIGURE OF FUN, EVEN RIDICULE. BUT SO LONG AS SHE LIVED, BARTENDERS NEVER STOPPED KEEPING A WARY EYE OUT FOR HER AND HER DREADED HATCHET. Marty: EVERY MOVEMENT NEEDS SOME PEOPLE TO CALL ATTENTION TO ITSELF BY BOLD ACTION. SHE KNEW THAT YOU HAD TO DRAW ATTENTION AND YOU NEEDED THE PRESS FOLLOWING YOU. YOU HAD TO MAKE THE RIGHT ENEMIES. I DON’T THINK SHE’S AT ALL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE MOVEMENT. SHE’S SIMPLY THE ONE WHO CALLED ATTENTION TO IT. AND THEN PATIENT, HARDWORKING PEOPLE FOLLOWED THROUGH. Narrator: IN 1893, IN OBERLIN, OHIO, A NEW ORGANIZATION HAD BEEN ESTABLISHED TO FIGHT THE EVILS OF ALCOHOL: THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE. IT WOULD TURN OUT TO BE THE MOST EFFECTIVE POLITICAL PRESSURE GROUP IN AMERICAN HISTORY. THE FOUNDER OF THE LEAGUE WAS THE REVEREND HOWARD HYDE RUSSELL. UNLIKE FRANCES WILLARD AND THE WCTU, RUSSELL WAS DETERMINED THAT HIS ORGANIZATION WOULD FOCUS ON A SINGLE GOAL: TO GET RID OF ALCOHOL, PERIOD. TOWN BY TOWN, COUNTY BY COUNTY, STATE BY STATE, THEY WOULD FORCE AMERICA TO GO "DRY." "THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE IS NOT IN POLITICS AS A PARTY," ONE LEADER SAID. "NOR ARE WE TRYING TO ABOLISH VICE, GAMBLING, HORSE-RACING, "MURDER, THEFT OR ARSON. "THE GOLD STANDARD, THE UNLIMITED COINAGE "OF SILVER, FREE TRADE AND CURRENCY REFORM DO NOT CONCERN US IN THE LEAST." THE LEAGUE LIKED TO CALL ITSELF "THE CHURCH IN ACTION AGAINST THE SALOON." BAPTISTS AND METHODISTS FORMED ITS HEART, BUT EVERY PROTESTANT DENOMINATION SIGNED ON, EXCEPT THE EPISCOPALIANS AND THE LUTHERANS. Marty: I AM OF LUTHERAN HERITAGE, GERMAN LUTHERAN. IT WOULDN’T HAVE OCCURRED TO THEM TO OPPOSE BEER, AND THEY REALLY RESENTED THE METHODISTS AND THE BAPTISTS WHO IMPOSED PROHIBITION ON THEM. SO A LOT OF SMART CRACKS CAME FROM BOTH SIDES. AND ONE OF THEM WAS THAT LUTHERANS DRANK OPENLY AND PRAISED GOD SECRETLY. AND THE BAPTISTS PRAISED GOD OPENLY AND DRANK SECRETLY. Narrator: THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE WAS MORE OR LESS MODELED ON THE MODERN CORPORATION THAT WAS ALREADY TRANSFORMING AMERICAN BUSINESS. IT HAD A NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS TO DIRECT ITS CAMPAIGNS; A SALARIED FULL-TIME STAFF TO OVERSEE THOUSANDS OF VOLUNTEERS; AMPLE FINANCING FROM MILLIONS IN ANNUAL DUES, AS WELL AS CHURCH COLLECTIONS; AND A PRINTING PLANT AT WESTERVILLE, OHIO, THAT CHURNED OUT 300 TONS OF PROPAGANDA EVERY MONTH. Murdock: THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE WAS ONE OF THE FIRST MODERN POLITICAL MOVEMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES. LIKE THE WOMAN’S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION, LIKE MOST SUFFRAGISTS, THEY TRULY BELIEVED THAT ALCOHOL WAS A DRUG THAT WAS BEING PUSHED ON CONSUMERS, THAT ONCE YOU ELIMINATED THE PUSHER THAT PEOPLE WOULD STOP DRINKING BECAUSE TEMPERANCE WAS THE NATURAL STATE OF HUMANS. Narrator: ANY POLITICIAN WHO DARED OPPOSE THE LEAGUE, HOWARD RUSSELL PROMISED, WOULD LIVE TO REGRET IT. "THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE," HE SAID, "WAS FORMED FOR THE PURPOSE OF ADMINISTERING POLITICAL RETRIBUTION." Okrent: BECAUSE THEY HAD SUCH A DEVOTED FOLLOWING, A FOLLOWING THAT WAS MOVED BY RELIGION, AND THERE’S NO MORE POWERFUL FORCE TO GET PEOPLE TO ACT, THEY WERE ABLE TO SAY TO POLITICIANS, "ARE YOU WITH US, OR ARE YOU AGAINST US? "AND IF YOU ARE AGAINST US, WE WILL DEFEAT YOU. AND IF YOU ARE WITH US, WE WILL ELECT YOU." AND THEY WERE ABLE TO DO IT IN STATE AFTER STATE AFTER STATE. Feldman: WHAT A WEDGE ISSUE THAT’S EFFECTIVE DOES IS IT FORCES YOU TO STAND UP AND SAY, "I’M FOR THIS, OR I’M FOR THAT." "I’M FOR ALCOHOL," OR "I’M AGAINST ALCOHOL." AND THIS KIND OF A POSITION THAT YOU WERE REQUIRED TO TAKE CAN BE A TREMENDOUSLY POWERFUL POLITICAL TOOL, BUT IT’S ALSO PROFOUNDLY DIVISIVE ’CAUSE THAT’S THE WHOLE POINT OF IT. THE WHOLE REASON YOU HAVE A WEDGE ISSUE IS TO DRIVE A WEDGE BETWEEN PEOPLE AND MAKE THEM STAND UP AND TAKE A STAND ON ONE PARTICULAR ISSUE. AND THIS ELEVATES THAT ISSUE IN IMPORTANCE ABOVE EVERYTHING ELSE, NO MATTER HOW IMPORTANT THE OTHER ISSUES REALLY ARE. Narrator: THE MAN WHO MADE IT ALL WORK WAS WAYNE BIDWELL WHEELER, THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE’S ABLEST COMMANDER-- THE PERSON, ONE ASSOCIATE SAID, "WHO CAN MAKE THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES SIT UP AND BEG." Okrent: HE LOOKED LIKE A BANK TELLER, WAYNE B. WHEELER, A NAME THAT, AT HIS DEATH IN THE TWENTIES, PEOPLE SAID, "HE WILL BE REMEMBERED FOREVER AS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PEOPLE OF OUR TIME." HE WAS THE ONE WHO FIGURED OUT THAT IF YOU STICK TO AN ISSUE AND YOU REALLY SELL THAT ISSUE, YOU CAN GET WHAT YOU WANT. Narrator: WHEELER WAS AN OHIO FARM BOY WHO HAD LOST AN UNCLE TO ALCOHOL AND HAD HIMSELF BEEN INJURED BY A DRUNKEN FARMHAND WIELDING A PITCHFORK. HE LIKED TO SAY THAT "GOD MADE THE COUNTRY, BUT MAN MADE THE TOWN." HE WAS IDEALLY SUITED TO LEAD WHAT BECAME, AT LEAST IN PART, A CRUSADE BY RURAL AMERICANS AGAINST THE BIG CITIES. RECRUITED BY HOWARD RUSSELL AT OBERLIN, HE BEGAN HIS WORK ON A BICYCLE, SPINNING FROM DOOR TO DOOR TO DEFEAT AN ANTI-PROHIBITION CANDIDATE FOR THE STATE SENATE. AS THE ORGANIZATION GREW, WHEELER QUICKLY MOVED UP IN THE RANKS. HE WAS A SKILLED LAWYER AND A SHREWD, CALCULATING POLITICAL OPERATIVE, WILLING TO WORK EVEN WITH POLITICIANS WHO DRANK, SO LONG AS THEY WERE WILLING TO VOTE TO KEEP OTHERS FROM DOING SO. SOME OLD-TIME TEMPERANCE CRUSADERS WERE HORRIFIED AT THE TACTICS HE USED AND THE COMPANY HE KEPT. HE DIDN’T CARE. Okrent: HE DIDN’T NEED TO WIN MAJORITIES; HE NEEDED TO WIN AT THE MARGIN. SO IF WHEELER COULD GET FOR THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE 10% OF THE VOTERS IN THAT STATE TO VOTE WHEREVER HE TOLD THEM TO VOTE, HE COULD CONTROL THE STATE. HE DIDN’T NEED 51%. HE ONLY NEEDED THE MARGIN THAT ONE PARTY NEEDED TO CONTROL THE LEGISLATURE. Narrator: WHEELER TARGETED 70 STATE LEGISLATORS IN OHIO WHO OPPOSED THE LEAGUE AND BY 1903 HAD DRIVEN EVERY ONE OF THEM FROM OFFICE. IN 1905, WHEN OHIO’S POPULAR REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR MYRON T. HERRICK, HIMSELF A REFORMER, DARED TRY TO WEAKEN A SO-CALLED "LOCAL OPTION" LAW THAT ALLOWED EACH COMMUNITY TO DECIDE FOR ITSELF WHETHER TO PREVENT ALCOHOL FROM BEING SOLD, WHEELER DENOUNCED HIM AS "THE CHAMPION OF THE MURDER-MILLS," UNLEASHED THE FULL FURY OF THE LEAGUE, AND CRUSHED HIM AT THE POLLS. THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY, ANXIOUS POLITICIANS IN BOTH PARTIES BEGAN WARNING ONE ANOTHER, "REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED TO HERRICK." "THE LESSONS THAT HAVE BEEN TAUGHT BY THIS CONTEST ARE IMPORTANT," WAYNE WHEELER SAID. "NEVER AGAIN WILL ANY POLITICAL PARTY IGNORE THE PROTESTS OF THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL FORCES OF THE STATE." THE LEAGUE’S POWER SPREAD STEADILY, EVENTUALLY REACHING INTO ALL 46 STATES-- OVERSHADOWING THE WOMEN’S GROUPS THAT HAD BEEN WORKING FOR TEMPERANCE FOR DECADES. Man: THE OLD PROHIBITION WEEPERS AND GURGLERS WERE QUITE INCAPABLE OF THIS ENTERPRISE, BUT THE NEW JANISSARIES OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE--THEY UNDERSTOOD THE SOUL OF THE AMERICAN POLITICIAN. THEY KNEW THAT HIS WHOLE POLITICS, HIS WHOLE PHILOSOPHY, HIS WHOLE CONCEPT OF HONESTY AND HONOR, WAS EMBRACED IN HIS SINGLE AND INSATIABLE YEARNING FOR A JOB, AND THEY SHOWED HIM HOW, BY PLAYING WITH THEM, HE COULD GET IT AND KEEP IT, AND HOW, BY STANDING AGAINST THEM, HE COULD LOSE IT. H.L. MENCKEN. Narrator: IN 1909, WHEELER HAD HELP FROM AN UNEXPECTED QUARTER. CITY-DWELLERS WITH A NICKEL TO SPARE COULD SEE SOMETHING NEW IN THE WORLD, A MOTION PICTURE VERSION OF "TEN NIGHTS IN A BAR ROOM," AN OLD STAGE MELODRAMA THAT HAD BEEN THE "UNCLE TOM’S CABIN" OF THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT AND A STAPLE OF SMALL-TOWN ENTERTAINMENT SINCE BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR. THE FILM EMBODIED EVERY TEMPERANCE FEAR: A DRUNKEN HUSBAND SQUANDERING HIS PAY, THE TRAGIC INJURY OF THE DAUGHTER SENT TO BRING HIM HOME, THE LAST GHASTLY STAGE OF ALCOHOLISM--THE AGONY OF DELIRIUM TREMENS. THE FILM HELPED TO REINFORCE THE BELIEF THAT EVEN ONE DROP OF ALCOHOL COULD DESTROY NOT JUST INDIVIDUALS, BUT WHOLE FAMILIES. WHEN LYMAN BEECHER FIRST BEGAN TO PREACH AGAINST DRINK, FEWER THAN ONE IN 10 AMERICANS HAD LIVED IN A CITY. NOW ALMOST HALF OF THEM DID. THE COUNTRY’S POPULATION HAD GROWN MORE THAN 10 TIMES AS MILLIONS OF IMMIGRANTS CONTINUED TO CROWD INTO CITIES. THEY WENT TO WORK IN STEEL MILLS AND SLAUGHTERHOUSES AND ON ASSEMBLY LINES, TRANSFORMING AMERICA INTO AN INDUSTRIAL POWERHOUSE. NEW CIRCUMSTANCES AND A NEW CENTURY SEEMED TO DEMAND A NEW KIND OF REFORM, PROGRESSIVE REFORM, RIGHTING WRONGS THROUGH LEGISLATION RATHER THAN PERSUASION: TO STOP CHILD LABOR AND WIN VOTES FOR WOMEN; TO END SWEATSHOP CONDITIONS; BREAK UP MONOPOLIES, COMBAT POLITICAL CORRUPTION; AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE CROWDED, SQUALID SLUMS. Leuchtenburg: PEOPLE COMMONLY THINK OF PROHIBITION AS BEING A CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT. NOT AT ALL. IT WAS A MOVEMENT THAT WAS EMBRACED BY PROGRESSIVES WHO THOUGHT OF THIS AS A FUNDAMENTAL KIND OF REFORM, IN PART BECAUSE ALCOHOLISM WAS SUCH A TERRIBLE PROBLEM AND PARTICULARLY A TERRIBLE PROBLEM FOR THE WORKING CLASS, FOR THE IMMIGRANT POOR. Lerner: THERE REALLY IS A GENUINE CONCERN FOR THE WELL-BEING OF THE IMMIGRANT, THE IMMIGRANT FAMILY, THE IMMIGRANT WORKER. IT’S JUST KIND OF FUNNY THAT THE WAY THAT THEY WANTED TO IMPROVE THEIR LIVES DIDN’T INCLUDE ASKING THEM WHAT THEY WANTED DONE. AND THEY WENT AFTER ONE OF THE THINGS THAT ACTUALLY MEANT A GREAT DEAL TO THEM. AND THAT’S WHAT YOU HEAR OVER AND OVER AGAIN FROM IMMIGRANTS DURING PROHIBITION, THAT THIS IS IMPORTANT TO THEM. THIS IS NOT JUST SOME VICE. THIS IS PART OF THEIR LIFE. Hamill: PEOPLE FOUND IT NECESSARY TO BELIEVE THAT THIS WAS AN ANGLO-SAXON WHITE COUNTRY. AND SUDDENLY HERE WERE ALL THESE CATHOLICS, THESE IRISH AND ITALIANS, HERE WERE ALL THESE EASTERN EUROPEANS INCLUDING LARGE NUMBERS OF JEWS, WHO WERE NOT LIKE THEM. AND THEY WERE CHANGING THE NATURE OF THE COUNTRY. THEY MADE AN ALLOY, A MIXTURE OF METALS THAT WAS TOUGHER THAN ANY INDIVIDUAL METAL. OBVIOUSLY THEY MADE A BETTER COUNTRY OUT OF IT. BUT THEY DIDN’T WANT TO BELIEVE THAT. Okrent: AND IN THE SMALL TOWNS-- PARTICULARLY THE MIDWEST-- WHERE NATIVE-BORN PROTESTANTS LIVED A VERY, RELATIVELY SPEAKING, A STABLE LIFE, THEY SAW THE CITY AS THESE CAULDRONS OF SIN AND DEBAUCHERY AND OF LARGE NUMBERS OF VOTES THAT WERE GOING TO CHANGE THE NATURE OF THE COUNTRY. Lerner: THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE, FOR ALL ITS TALK ABOUT GETTING RID OF THE SALOON, REALLY WAS THINKING MOSTLY ABOUT THE IMMIGRANT. IT WAS A CONCERN ABOUT, WHO DOES THE SALOON CATER TO? THOSE ARE THE PEOPLE WE’RE WORRIED ABOUT. THERE’S A SENSE THAT THEY’RE NOT REAL AMERICANS. THAT’S ALWAYS A VERY STRONG PART OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE’S MESSAGE, THAT REAL AMERICANS DON’T NEED A SALOON. THEY’RE BETTER THAN THAT. Narrator: THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE WAS PERFECTLY POISED TO EXPLOIT SMALL-TOWN CONCERNS, AND THEIR OPPONENTS SEEMED INCAPABLE OF SEEING HOW SERIOUS THEY WERE. Okrent: IT’S VERY HARD FOR PEOPLE ON THE OTHER SIDE--THE WETS--TO ORGANIZE AROUND ANYTHING. WHAT WAS THE COMMON CAUSE? "I’M GOING TO GO MARCH IN THE STREET SO I CAN KEEP MY GIN?" IT DOESN’T HAVE QUITE THE SAME RING AS THE MORALLY INSPIRED MOVEMENT THAT MANY OF THE PEOPLE ON THE DRY SIDE HAD. Narrator: FOR NEARLY HALF A CENTURY, THE BREWERS HAD BEEN HOLDING THEIR OWN AGAINST TEMPERANCE FORCES. THEIR INDUSTRY WAS NOW ONE OF THE LARGEST IN THE UNITED STATES, PRODUCING 900 MILLION BARRELS OF BEER A YEAR. IN SOME YEARS, TAXES ON ALCOHOL COMPRISED 70% OF FEDERAL INTERNAL REVENUES. ONE BREWER’S LETTERHEAD BOASTED, "UNCLE SAM IS OUR PARTNER." THE BEST-KNOWN AND MOST POWERFUL BREWER WAS ADOLPHUS BUSCH. Okrent: IF YOU WERE TO IMAGINE AN EMPEROR OF BEER, THAT WAS ADOLPHUS BUSCH. HE BUILT THE FAMILY FIRM INTO THE LARGEST BREWERY IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE. AND HE WAS THE LEADER OF THE WET MOVEMENT, SUCH AS IT WAS. Narrator: AN IMMIGRANT FROM THE RHINELAND, THE YOUNGEST OF 21 CHILDREN, HE ENTERED THE BREWERY SUPPLY BUSINESS IN ST. LOUIS IN 1857, WENT INTO PARTNERSHIP WITH HIS FATHER- IN-LAW, EBERHARD ANHEUSER, AND SOON BECAME THE FIRST BREWER TO SUCCEED AT BOTTLING BEER FOR SHIPMENT. HIS BREWERY ON THE ST. LOUIS RIVERFRONT SPRAWLED ACROSS 70 ACRES. HE OWNED RAILROADS, ICE FACTORIES, BOTTLING PLANTS. BUSCH HAD 5 LAVISH HOMES ON TWO CONTINENTS. HIS CHILDREN’S PLAYHOUSE HAD 3 FLOORS. TIFFANY DESIGNED THE STAINED- GLASS WINDOWS IN HIS STABLE. ON THE OCCASION OF HIS 50th WEDDING ANNIVERSARY, CUSTOMERS IN 35 CITIES RAISED A GLASS TO THE HAPPY COUPLE. POLITICIANS SOUGHT HIS SUPPORT. PRESIDENTS BEFRIENDED HIM. HE LIKED TO WEAR MEDALS AND AWARDS, INCLUDING THE ORDER OF THE RED EAGLE, PERSONALLY PRESENTED TO HIM BY KAISER WILHELM II. AS THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE STEADILY GAINED GROUND, OTHER MEMBERS OF THE BREWERS’ ASSOCIATION LOOKED TO ADOLPHUS BUSCH FOR LEADERSHIP. Okrent: WHEN ONE SIDE OF A MOVEMENT IS PEOPLE INSPIRED BY PASSION AND THE OTHER IS PEOPLE INSPIRED BY COMMERCE, PASSION IS LIKELY GOING TO WIN. HOWEVER, COMMERCE, IN THE FORM OF ADOLPHUS BUSCH AND THE OTHER BREWERS AND THE DISTILLERS, CAN HOLD OFF PASSION FOR MANY, MANY YEARS. AND THAT’S WHAT HE DID. HE THREW HIMSELF IN FRONT OF THE PROHIBITION MOVEMENT, AND HE WAS GOING TO STOP IT SINGLE-HANDEDLY, HE THOUGHT. Narrator: BUSCH AND HIS ALLIES FOUGHT BACK, BUYING LEGISLATORS AND ELECTION OFFICIALS WHENEVER AND WHEREVER THEY COULD. THEY BRIBED NEWSPAPER EDITORS TO WRITE EDITORIALS FAVORING THEIR CAUSE--EVEN PAID THE POLL-TAX FOR MEXICAN AND AFRICAN-AMERICAN VOTERS IN TEXAS BECAUSE THEY WERE THOUGHT LIKELY TO FAVOR THE SALE OF BEER. BUT THE BREWERS WERE PAINFULLY SLOW TO UNDERSTAND THE REVULSION MANY AMERICANS FELT AT THE WORST EXCESSES OF THE SALOONS THEY OWNED. AND THEY ENGAGED IN POINTLESS QUARRELS WITH WHISKEY DISTILLERS. Okrent: ONE OF THE THINGS THAT WEAKENED THE WET SIDE OF THE DEBATE IS THAT THE BREWERS, TRYING TO PRESERVE THEIR RIGHT TO SELL BEER, THEY TURNED ON THE DISTILLERS AND SAID, "THE DISTILLERS ARE DOING REALLY HORRIBLE THINGS. "IT’S TERRIBLE FOR THE AMERICAN FAMILY. "THIS IS A POISON THAT’S BEING POURED INTO PEOPLE, WHERE BEER, THAT’S LIQUID BREAD"-- WAS ACTUALLY A TERM THAT THEY USED TO DEFINE IT. IT WAS A HEALTHY BEVERAGE. THEY PUBLISHED PICTURES OF LITTLE BABIES WITH STEINS, YOU KNOW, AND MOTHERS WHO DRINK BEER ARE GONNA BUILD BETTER BABIES. BABIES SHOULD SIP SOME BEER, AS WELL. THEY TRIED TO TURN IT INTO A HEALTH BEVERAGE. Narrator: THE BREWERS ALSO POURED MONEY INTO A NATIONAL ORGANIZATION CALLED THE GERMAN-AMERICAN ALLIANCE. IT HAD BEEN FOUNDED SIMPLY TO ENCOURAGE GERMAN CULTURE, BUT THE BREWERS TURNED IT INTO AN ANTI-PROHIBITION ARMY, PLEDGED TO DEFEAT WHAT IT CALLED THE PROHIBITIONISTS’ ASSAULT ON "GERMAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS AND THE JOVIALITY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE." NEARLY TWO MILLION GERMAN- AMERICANS WOULD EVENTUALLY JOIN THE ALLIANCE, HELPING TO ENSURE THAT STATES WITH LARGE GERMAN POPULATIONS LIKE PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK, ILLINOIS AND IOWA, WOULD NOT VOTE THEMSELVES DRY. BUT IT ALSO DEEPENED SMALL- TOWN AMERICA’S SUSPICION OF BREWERS AND THE SALOONS THEY CONTROLLED. Feldman: IF YOU REALLY DON’T WANT PEOPLE TO DRINK, IT’S NOT ENOUGH JUST TO BAN ALCOHOL IN THIS TOWN. YOU HAVE TO BAN IT AT LEAST IN THE NEXT TOWN OVER, OR PEOPLE WILL CROSS THE TOWN LINE AND GO AND DRINK THERE. THE SAME PROBLEM IS TRUE, OF COURSE, AT THE STATE LEVEL. IT BECAME INCREASINGLY CLEAR THAT YOU NEEDED NATIONAL REGULATION, THAT SOMETHING NEEDED TO COVER THE WHOLE COUNTRY IF IT WAS GOING TO PROHIBIT ALCOHOL IN A GENERAL WAY. TO OUTLAW ALCOHOL NATIONALLY, THEN, WHAT YOU NEEDED WAS A LAW THAT WOULD REACH EVERYBODY, AND THAT HAD TO COME FROM THE CONSTITUTION. Narrator: BY 1913, THANKS LARGELY TO THE TIRELESS EFFORTS OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE AND THE WCTU, GEORGIA AND OKLAHOMA HAD JOINED MAINE AND NORTH DAKOTA AND PASSED LAWS RESTRICTING LIQUOR STATE-WIDE. SO HAD KANSAS, MISSISSIPPI, NORTH CAROLINA, TENNESSEE AND WEST VIRGINIA. THE BREWERS AND DISTILLERS WERE SUFFERING. COUNTY BY COUNTY, STATE BY STATE, THEY WERE BEING FORCED TO CLOSE DOWN. BUT THEY STILL BELIEVED THAT ANY KIND OF NATIONAL RESTRICTION ON ALCOHOL WAS IMPOSSIBLE BECAUSE THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT WAS SO DEPENDENT ON THE TAXES THEY PAID. THEN, FOR THE LIQUOR INDUSTRY, THE UNTHINKABLE HAPPENED. IN EARLY 1913, THE 16th AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION WAS RATIFIED, AUTHORIZING THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO IMPOSE AN INCOME TAX. THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE HAD HELPED BRING IT ABOUT, SHREWDLY ALLYING ITSELF WITH PROGRESSIVES AND POPULISTS WHO FAVORED THE REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. THE GOVERNMENT WOULD NO LONGER HAVE TO RELY ON ALCOHOL TO FUND ITS OPERATIONS. Okrent: THE PROHIBITIONISTS KNEW THAT THEY COULD NEVER, EVER HAVE PROHIBITION UNTIL THEY COULD FIND SOMETHING TO SUBSTITUTE FOR THE TAX COLLECTIONS THAT CAME THROUGH THE EXCISE TAX. SO THEREFORE THEY SUPPORTED THE INCOME TAX. Narrator: "PROHIBITION IS NO LONGER A LOCAL ISSUE," WARNED THE AMERICAN BREWERS’ REVIEW. "PROHIBITION IS NOW A NATIONAL DANGER." THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE POUNCED. "THE TIME IS NOW," IT SAID. Man: WE THEREFORE DECLARE FOR ALCOHOL’S NATIONAL ANNIHILATION BY AN AMENDMENT TO THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION WHICH SHALL FOREVER PROHIBIT THROUGHOUT THE TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES THE MANUFACTURE AND SALE AND THE IMPORTATION, EXPORTATION, AND TRANSPORTATION OF INTOXICATING LIQUOR TO BE USED AS A BEVERAGE. Narrator: ON DECEMBER 10, 1913, THE CITIZENS OF WASHINGTON, D.C., SAW SOMETHING THEY HAD RARELY SEEN BEFORE: A MASS MARCH SWEEPING TOWARD THE CAPITOL-- TWO PARALLEL STREAMS OF PEOPLE: SEVERAL HUNDRED WOMEN, REPRESENTING THE WCTU, AND A THOUSAND MEN, MEMBERS OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE. THEY WERE THERE TO DEMAND A PROHIBITION AMENDMENT TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION. A NUMBER OF OTHER COUNTRIES WERE ALSO CONSIDERING PROHIBITION STATUTES, BUT THESE MARCHERS WANTED AN AMENDMENT RATHER THAN A MERE LAW BECAUSE IF THEY SUCCEEDED, THE PROHIBITION OF ALCOHOL WOULD BE ENSHRINED IN THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES FOREVER. NO AMENDMENT HAD EVER BEEN REPEALED. Feldman: FROM THE EARLIEST DAYS THE CONSTITUTION CAME TO BE SEEN BY AMERICANS AS SOMETHING MUCH MORE THAN WHAT THE PEOPLE WHO WROTE IT IMAGINED IT WOULD BE. IT WAS NOT JUST A FRAMEWORK FOR GOVERNMENT, BUT IT CAME TO BE SEEN AS CAPTURING THE VALUES AND IDEALS THAT WERE ESSENTIAL TO WHAT MADE A PERSON AN AMERICAN. Narrator: THE SAME DAY AS THE MARCH ON THE CAPITOL, SENATOR MORRIS SHEPPARD OF TEXAS SPONSORED AN 18th AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES--PROHIBITION. REPRESENTATIVE RICHMOND P. HOBSON OF ALABAMA INTRODUCED IT IN THE HOUSE. ENACTING IT WOULD BE A TALL ORDER. THEY WOULD NEED TO WIN 2/3 OF THE HOUSE AND SENATE BEFORE THE AMENDMENT COULD BE SUBMITTED TO THE LEGISLATURES OF THE 48 STATES--AND THEN WOULD NEED TO PERSUADE 36 OF THEM TO RATIFY IT. Okrent: THEY HAD TO GET IT PASSED BEFORE 1920 BECAUSE IN 1920 THERE WAS GOING TO BE A NEW CENSUS, AND WHEN THE CENSUS CHANGED, THE CITIES, WHICH WERE THE WET PART OF THE COUNTRY, WERE GOING TO HAVE MORE REPRESENTATION IN CONGRESS, AND THE SMALL TOWNS WERE GOING TO HAVE LESS REPRESENTATION IN CONGRESS. Narrator: IN 1914, DRYS WON A FIRST VOTE IN THE HOUSE, 197 TO 190, NOWHERE NEAR THE 2/3 THEY NEEDED, BUT A SERIOUS SIGN OF WHICH WAY THE WIND WAS BLOWING. IT WAS CLEAR THAT MILLIONS OF AMERICANS HAD NOW COME TO SUPPORT PROHIBITION FOR ALL SORTS OF REASONS--DEMOCRATS AS WELL AS REPUBLICANS, PROGRESSIVES AS WELL AS CONSERVATIVES, FREETHINKERS AS WELL AS CHURCHGOERS. SOME OF THE RICHEST INDUSTRIALISTS IN THE COUNTRY, INCLUDING ANDREW CARNEGIE AND HENRY FORD, BACKED PROHIBITION BECAUSE THEY BELIEVED ALCOHOL UNDERCUT THE OUTPUT OF THEIR WORKERS. THE RADICAL INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD WERE FOR IT, TOO, BECAUSE THEY THOUGHT ALCOHOL WAS PART OF A CAPITALIST PLOT TO WEAKEN THE WORKINGMAN. SO WAS BOOKER T. WASHINGTON BECAUSE HE BELIEVED ALCOHOL UNDERMINED BLACK PROGRESS, WHILE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF SOUTHERN WHITES SUPPORTED IT, AS WELL, IN PART BECAUSE THEY BELIEVED ALCOHOL TURNED BLACK PEOPLE INTO BRUTES. Okrent: THERE WAS A LOT IN THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT AND THE PROHIBITION MOVEMENT THAT WAS REALLY TEMPERANCE AND PROHIBITION FOR SOMEBODY ELSE. IT WAS THE PEAK OF JIM CROW, AND THE PROHIBITION MOVEMENT IN THE SOUTH--MUCH OF IT WAS FEAR OF THIS DOUBLE COMBINATION, THE SCARIEST THING TO A WHITE SOUTHERN RACIST: A BLACK MAN WITH A BALLOT IN ONE HAND AND A BOTTLE IN THE OTHER HAND, AND THEY WOULD DO ANYTHING TO KEEP THE BLACK MAN FROM HAVING EITHER ONE. Narrator: MEANWHILE, THE ANTI- SALOON LEAGUE INTENSIFIED ITS EFFORTS, SENDING SOME 50,000 TRAINED SPEAKERS INTO THE FIELD, COLLECTING TENS OF THOUSANDS OF SIGNATURES ON PETITIONS, WORKING TO DEFEAT ANY SENATOR OR CONGRESSMAN UNWILLING TO OFFER UNQUALIFIED SUPPORT FOR THE AMENDMENT, AND DISPATCHING SECRET OPERATIVES TO INFILTRATE THE OPPOSITION AND FERRET OUT ITS PLANS. 8 MORE STATES PASSED DRY LAWS: VIRGINIA, ARKANSAS, ALABAMA, NEBRASKA, OREGON, WASHINGTON, COLORADO, AND ARIZONA. BECAUSE OF LOCAL OPTION LAWS ALREADY ON THE BOOKS, MORE THAN HALF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE NOW FOUND THEMSELVES LIVING UNDER SOME VERSION OF PROHIBITION. MANY OF THE STATE LAWS STILL PERMITTED PACKAGE STORES TO SELL LIQUOR FOR HOME CONSUMPTION. IT WAS THE SALOON THE DRYS WERE AFTER, AND MOST AMERICANS WENT ALONG, CERTAIN ANY NATIONAL LAW WOULDN’T REALLY AFFECT THEM. PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON FOUND HIMSELF TRAPPED BETWEEN THE TWO WINGS OF HIS DEMOCRATIC PARTY--THE WET CITIES OF THE EAST AND MIDWEST, AND THE VERY DRY SOUTH AND WEST. IN PART TO PLACATE THE DRYS, HE HAD APPOINTED JOSEPHUS DANIELS, A TEE-TOTALING NORTH CAROLINA NEWSPAPERMAN, AS SECRETARY OF THE NAVY. DANIELS PROMPTLY BANISHED ALCOHOL FROM THE ENTIRE FLEET. WILSON’S SECRETARY OF STATE WAS A FAR MORE CELEBRATED CHAMPION OF PROHIBITION, WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN OF NEBRASKA, 3 TIMES A FAILED CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT. Okrent: HE WAS A PROGRESSIVE POPULIST. HIS ENEMIES CALLED HIM "THE FUNDAMENTALIST POPE." HE AT FIRST WAS A TEMPERANCE GUY BUT NOT A PROHIBITIONIST, AND I THINK THAT IT’S FAIR TO SAY THAT HE SAW WHICH WAY THE MOVEMENT WAS GOING, AND WHEN HE SAW THAT THERE WAS A POSSIBILITY OF A PROHIBITION AMENDMENT, HE JUMPED INTO THE FRONT OF IT BECAUSE HE WAS THIS MAJOR, MAJOR FIGURE IN THE UNITED STATES. Narrator: ON APRIL 2, 1917, PRESIDENT WILSON TRAVELED TO CAPITOL HILL TO ASK CONGRESS FOR A DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST GERMANY. THE GREAT WAR HAD BEGUN IN EUROPE ALMOST 3YEARS EARLIER, AND OVER THE INTERVENING MONTHS, GERMAN SUBMARINES HAD SUNK AMERICAN VESSELS... AND ENRAGED THE AMERICAN PUBLIC. THE WAR--AND THE ANTI-GERMAN PROPAGANDA PRODUCED BY THE WILSON ADMINISTRATION’S NEWLY CREATED COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC INFORMATION--SET OFF A WAVE OF HYSTERIA ABOUT GERMANS AND GERMAN-AMERICANS. SAUERKRAUT WAS RENAMED "LIBERTY CABBAGE." DACHSHUNDS WERE STONED TO DEATH. SCHOOL CHILDREN DESTROYED THEIR GERMAN TEXTBOOKS, AND AN ILLINOIS MOB LYNCHED AN AMERICAN CITIZEN WHOSE ONLY CRIME HAD BEEN SPEAKING GERMAN OVER A NEIGHBOR’S FENCE. THE FRENZIED ATMOSPHERE WAS A DISASTER FOR THE GERMAN-AMERICAN BREWERS-- AND TAILOR-MADE FOR WAYNE WHEELER AND THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE. Okrent: THERE’S AN OFFICE OF THE GOVERNMENT THAT IS CREATED TO PROPAGANDIZE AND TO BUILD UP HATRED FOR ALL THINGS GERMAN. WELL, TO THE PROHIBITIONIST, THIS WAS THE HOME RUN. THIS IS THE THING THAT THEY NEEDED TO FINALLY WIN. Man: WE HAVE GERMAN ENEMIES ACROSS THE WATER. BUT WE HAVE GERMAN ENEMIES IN THIS COUNTRY, TOO. AND THE WORST OF ALL OF OUR GERMAN ENEMIES, THE MOST TREACHEROUS, THE MOST MENACING ARE PABST, SCHLITZ, BLATZ, AND MILLER. Narrator: WAYNE WHEELER PERSUADED THE SENATE TO INVESTIGATE LINKS BETWEEN THE BREWERS AND THE GERMAN- AMERICAN ALLIANCE, WHICH HAD TRUMPETED THE GERMAN CAUSE UNTIL THE MOMENT AMERICA ENTERED THE WAR. WHEELER WOULD SEE TO IT THAT BEER AND TREASON WERE NOW LINKED IN THE PUBLIC MIND. THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE IMMEDIATELY CALLED FOR A TEMPORARY WARTIME BAN ON THE SALE OF PRECIOUS GRAIN TO BREWERS AND DISTILLERS-- AND EVENTUALLY SAW IT PASSED BY BOTH HOUSES. FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY, EVERY AMERICAN WAS SUBJECT TO FEDERAL RESTRICTIONS ON ALCOHOL. THERE HAD BEEN 1,000 AMERICAN BREWERIES BEFORE THE UNITED STATES ENTERED THE WAR. WITHIN MONTHS, HALF WOULD BE OUT OF BUSINESS. MEANWHILE, WAYNE WHEELER WAS AT WORK BEHIND THE SCENES, DETERMINED TO SEIZE THE MOMENT AND WIN ADOPTION OF THE PROHIBITION AMENDMENT. BOIES PENROSE, THE FORMIDABLE REPUBLICAN BOSS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND ONE OF THE SENATE’S LEADING WETS, MINDFUL THAT PASSAGE OF THE AMENDMENT IN CONGRESS WAS INEVITABLE, THREATENED TO MOUNT A FILIBUSTER UNLESS THE DRYS AGREED TO A TIME LIMIT FOR RATIFICATION BY THE STATES. THEY WOULD HAVE 6 YEARS. NO MORE. PENROSE WAS SURE THAT 36 STATES WOULD NEVER BE ABLE TO RATIFY THE AMENDMENT IN THE TIME ALLOTTED. BUT TO THE SURPRISE OF THE WETS, WHEELER AGREED TO THE LIMIT. THE SENATE VOTED IN FAVOR OF THE AMENDMENT ON AUGUST 1, 1917. AFTERWARDS, CONVINCED THEY HAD OUTWITTED WHEELER AND THE DRYS, THE WETS WENT OUT FOR A CELEBRATORY DRINK. THE FINAL HOUSE VERSION OF THE BILL ALLOWED THE DRY FORCES 7 YEARS TO ACHIEVE RATIFICATION. THE WETS STILL REMAINED CONFIDENT THAT IT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN. WHEN THE VOTE IN THE HOUSE CAME ON DECEMBER 18th, WAYNE WHEELER WAS WATCHING FROM THE GALLERY. Okrent: ONE OF HIS OPPONENTS SAID, THEY WOULD LOOK UP TO HIM AS IF HE WERE THE ROMAN CONSUL. WAS HE GOING THUMBS UP OR THUMBS DOWN? AND THEY WOULD VOTE THE WAY THAT HE TOLD THEM TO VOTE. NO MATTER WHAT YOUR POSITION WAS ON OTHER ISSUES, IF YOU WERE NOT OK WITH WAYNE WHEELER, YOU WERE IN TROUBLE. Narrator: THE AMENDMENT PASSED THE HOUSE EASILY--282 TO 128-- AND WAS SENT TO THE STATES FOR RATIFICATION. THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE AND THEIR ALLIES HAD ONLY 84 MONTHS TO CONVINCE MORE THAN 5,000 LEGISLATORS IN 36 STATES TO RATIFY. THEY WOULD DO IT IN LESS THAN 13. ON JANUARY 16, 1919, NEBRASKA, THE HOME OF WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN, BECAME THE 36th STATE TO RATIFY THE 18TH AMENDMENT. IT WOULD GO INTO EFFECT ONE YEAR LATER. Hamill: HERE WERE ALL THESE EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS, FAMILIAR FIGURES TODAY, WHO DECIDED TO PASS A LAW THAT WOULD IMPRISON JESUS IF HE TURNED WATER INTO WINE. THEY’D SAY, "THERE HE GOES. LOCK HIM UP." Narrator: AS MIDNIGHT NEARED ON THE NIGHT OF JANUARY 16, 1920, THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN WASHINGTON, D.C., WAS PACKED WITH PEOPLE EAGER TO CELEBRATE THE MOMENT WHEN THE 18th AMENDMENT CAME INTO EFFECT. Okrent: IT’S THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN WASHINGTON, INTERESTINGLY THE CHURCH THAT FREDERICK DOUGLASS PRAYED AT, AND GATHERED THERE ARE ALL THE LEADERS OF THE PROHIBITION MOVEMENT. Narrator: ANNA GORDON, FRANCES WILLARD’S LONG-TIME COMPANION, NOW THE PRESIDENT OF THE WOMAN’S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION, WAS THERE. SO WAS WAYNE WHEELER OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE. SECRETARY OF THE NAVY JOSEPHUS DANIELS TOLD THE CROWD THAT "NO MAN LIVING WILL EVER SEE A CONGRESS THAT WILL LESSEN THE ENFORCEMENT OF THAT LAW. THE SALOON," HE SAID, "IS AS DEAD AS SLAVERY." Okrent: AND GIVING THE CROWNING SPEECH AFTER MANY HOURS OF PEOPLE WAITING FOR IT, OUT COMES WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN, HIS GREAT BALD DOME GLEAMING, HIS EYES FILLED WITH THE FIRE THAT MADE HIM THE GREATEST ORATOR OF HIS TIME. AND HE GIVES THE SPEECH THAT ENDS AT THE STROKE OF MIDNIGHT, AND HE CRIES, "THEY ARE DEAD, THEY ARE DEAD WHO SOUGHT THE YOUNG CHILD’S LIFE," TAKEN FROM THE BOOK OF MATTHEW. "THOSE WHO WOULD KILL US AND WHO WOULD DESTROY US, WE HAVE KILLED THEM." AND IT IS THIS GALVANIC MOMENT WHEN ABSOLUTE TRIUMPH OF WORKING TOWARD THIS MOMENT FINALLY ARRIVED. Narrator: MILLIONS OF AMERICANS WERE JUBILANT. "THE SLUMS WILL SOON BE A MEMORY," THE EVANGELIST BILLY SUNDAY SAID. "MEN WILL WALK UPRIGHT, WOMEN WILL SMILE AND THE CHILDREN WILL LAUGH." HELL, HE WAS SURE, WOULD "FOREVER BE FOR RENT." Lerner: THERE REALLY WAS THIS OVERLY OPTIMISTIC SENSE AMONG DRYS THAT THROUGH THE STROKE OF A PEN SUDDENLY EVERYONE WAS GOING TO CHANGE THEIR HABITS AND CHANGE THEIR WAYS. THERE WERE A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO SAID, ’LET’S GIVE THIS A TRY." BUT IT WASN’T GOING TO BE THE EASY TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICA THAT THE DRYS IMAGINED. Narrator: AFTER NEARLY A CENTURY OF HARD WORK BY CLERGYMEN AND WOMEN’S GROUPS, REFORMED ALCOHOLICS AND SINGLE-ISSUE LOBBYISTS, THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WAS OFFICIALLY DRY. THOSE WHO HAD INSISTED ON THE "ABSOLUTE SHALL" HAD WON. WHAT HAD BEEN THE FIFTH-LARGEST INDUSTRY IN THE COUNTRY WAS NOW ILLEGAL. TENS OF THOUSANDS OF WORKERS, MOSTLY IMMIGRANTS, WOULD LOSE THEIR JOBS, AND SO WOULD HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF OTHERS IN RELATED INDUSTRIES: TRUCKERS AND BARREL MAKERS, BOTTLERS AND GRAIN GROWERS, WAITERS AND BARTENDERS. AT FIRST, MOST AMERICANS, EVEN MANY OF THOSE WHO HAD INITIALLY OPPOSED PROHIBITION, WOULD DO THEIR BEST TO OBEY THE NEW LAW. Okrent: THERE WAS A LOT OF THE DRY MOVEMENT THAT WAS IDEALIST, AND ONE OF THE IDEALS WAS A BELIEF IN LAW, THAT IF WE HAVE THIS IN THE CONSTITUTION, IN THE ORGANIC LAW OF THE NATION, AND IF WE HAVE AN ENFORCEMENT LAW THAT HAS BEEN PASSED BY CONGRESS AND SIGNED BY THE PRESIDENT, PEOPLE WILL OBEY THAT LAW. YOU KNOW, WE DON’T MURDER EACH OTHER, EITHER. Narrator: BUT IN CHICAGO, JUST A FEW MINUTES AFTER PROHIBITION WENT INTO EFFECT, 6 MASKED BANDITS WITH PISTOLS EMPTIED TWO FREIGHT CARS FULL OF WHISKEY, ANOTHER GANG STOLE 4 CASKS OF GRAIN ALCOHOL FROM A GOVERNMENT BONDED WAREHOUSE, AND STILL ANOTHER HIJACKED A TRUCK LOADED WITH BOURBON. MAKING PROHIBITION THE LAW OF THE LAND HAD BEEN ONE THING. ENFORCING IT WOULD BE ANOTHER. THE DEVIL WOULD TURN OUT TO BE IN THE DETAILS. CAPTIONING MADE POSSIBLE BY FRIENDS OF NCI Announcer: NEXT TIME ON "PROHIBITION"... Man: TO PASS A LAW MEANS NOTHING. TO ENFORCE THE LAW MEANS EVERYTHING. Announcer: ALCOHOL MOVES UNDERGROUND. Man: IT DIDN’T TAKE A LOT OF BRAINS TO MAKE A LOT OF BOOZE. BOY, THAT’S GOOD! Announcer: AND BOOTLEGGING BECOMES BIG BUSINESS. Man as George Remus: REMUS WAS IN THE WHISKEY BUSINESS, AND REMUS WAS THE BIGGEST MAN IN THE BUSINESS. Announcer: FROM KEN BURNS, DON’T MISS PART TWO OF "PROHIBITION" ONLY ON PBS. MOTHER: "What are you doing?" Possibilities, your day is filled with them. DANCE INSTRUCTOR: "Reach up, energy in the finger tips. Collapse." WOMAN: "T.V., play Downton Abbey." And PBS helps everyone discover theirs. Anytime, anywhere. FATHER: "Up in the sky, you might see it." PBS, we're with you, for life. TO LEARN MORE ABOUT "PROHIBITION," WATCH EXTENDED VIDEO CLIPS, OR GO BEHIND THE SCENES WITH THE FILMMAKERS, VISIT PBS.ORG. "PROHIBITION" IS AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY AND DVD. TO ORDER, VISIT SHOPPBS.ORG OR CALL 1-800-PLAY-PBS. Announcer: HISTORY, AS SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF KEN BURNS, IS MORE THAN JUST A COLLECTION OF STORIES ABOUT WHAT’S HAPPENED IN THE PAST. IT’S A CHANCE FOR US ALL TO REFLECT ON HOW TO BUILD A STRONGER TOMORROW. WE SHARE IN HIS VISION, AND WE’RE PROUD TO SUPPORT HIS EFFORTS. Announcer: FUNDING FOR THIS PROGRAM IS PROVIDED BY: MEMBERS OF THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY, DEDICATED TO HELPING KEN BURNS TELL AMERICA’S STORIES, INCLUDING THE MONTRONE FAMILY THROUGH THE PENATES FOUNDATION; THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES BECAUSE DEMOCRACY DEMANDS WISDOM; THE ARTHUR VINING DAVIS FOUNDATIONS, DEDICATED TO STRENGTHENING AMERICA’S FUTURE THROUGH EDUCATION; THE PARK FOUNDATION, DEDICATED TO HEIGHTENING PUBLIC AWARENESS OF CRITICAL ISSUES; THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING AND BY CONTRIBUTIONS TO YOUR PBS STATION FROM VIEWERS LIKE YOU. THANK YOU.

Narrator: TONIGHT, FROM DIRECTOR KEN BURNS... THEY HAD COME TO THE FAR EDGE OF THE GREAT PLAINS IN SEARCH OF A NEW BEGINNING IN THE LAST PLACE IN AMERICA WHERE A FAMILY COULD CLAIM A HOMESTEAD AND BUILD A FUTURE. Woman: WE HAD THE BEST CROP THAT WE HAD IN 192HA9, AND EVERYTHING WAS LOOKING UP. Narrator: A SEA OF GRASS, ONCE THE DOMAIN OF INDIANS AND BUFFALO, DISAPPEARED BENEATH THE BLADE OF A PLOW. Woman, voice-over: I SAW THE WHOLE COUNTRY TRANSFORMED IN THE SUNSET GLOW-- ALL THE BROWN PRAIRIE TURNED TO GOLD. Narrator: BUT THEN IT WAS AS IF THE LAND REJECTED THEM. THE RAINS STOPPED AND THE WINDS CAME. Woman: WE SAW THIS CLOUD COMING IN. BLACK, BLACK DIRT. AND I'LL NEVER FORGET, MY GRANDMOTHER, SHE SAID, "YOU KIDS RUN AND GET TOGETHER. THE END OF THE WORLD IS COMING." Narrator: IT CAME LIKE A BLACK WALL, A TIDE OF DESTRUCTION THAT CRASHED OVER THE BROKEN PLAINS, CHOKING THE LIFE OUT OF EVERYTHING IN ITS PATH. Man: YOU NEVER REALLY ESCAPED THE DUST. IT ALWAYS FOUND ITS WAY IN. AND THAT'S, I THINK, WHAT DROVE PEOPLE CRAZY. Narrator: SOME WOULD PULL UP STAKES AND MOVE ON. BUT MOST STAYED, ALWAYS LOOKING TO THE PROMISE THAT NEXT YEAR WOULD BE BETTER. Man: WE WERE JUST TOO SELFISH AND WE WERE TRYING TO MAKE MONEY. AND IT DIDN'T WORK OUT. Narrator: KEN BURNS TELLS THE STORY OF A GENERATION THAT WAS BURIED, AND WHAT IT TOOK TO DIG OUT. "THE DUST BOWL" COMING UP NEXT ON PBS. Announcer: FUNDING FOR THIS PROGRAM IS PROVIDED BY: MEMBERS OF THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY, DEDICATED TO HELPING KEN BURNS TELL AMERICA'S STORIES, INCLUDING THE DANA A. HAMEL FAMILY CHARITABLE TRUST, AND ROBERT AND BEVERLY GRAPPONE; THE ARTHUR VINING DAVIS FOUNDATIONS, DEDICATED TO STRENGTHENING AMERICA'S FUTURE THROUGH EDUCATION; THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES, EXPLORING THE HUMAN ENDEAVOR; THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION; THE WALLACE GENETIC FOUNDATION; THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING AND BY CONTRIBUTIONS TO YOUR PBS STATION FROM VIEWERS LIKE YOU. THANK YOU. [WIND BLOWING] Don Wells: LET ME TELL YOU HOW IT WAS. I DON'T CARE WHO DESCRIBES THAT TO YOU, NOBODY CAN TELL IT ANY WORSE THAN WHAT IT WAS. NO ONE EXAGGERATES THAT. THERE IS NO WAY FOR IT TO BE EXAGGERATED. IT WAS THAT BAD. Pauline Robertson: IT WAS JUST UNBELIEVABLE. IT'D BLISTER YOUR FACE. IT WOULD PUT YOUR EYES OUT. WELL, I GUESS I CAN'T DESCRIBE IT. IT WAS JUST... IT WAS JUST CONSTANT, JUST THAT STEADY BLOW OF DIRT. Floyd Coen: AS FAR AS YOU COULD SEE, THERE WAS A DUST STORM COMING RIGHT TOWARDS YOU. THIS GIANT WALL JUST COMING TOWARDS YOU. AND YOU STILL HAD THE FEELING, WHETHER YOU WOULD ADMIT IT, THAT SOMETHING WAS GOING TO RUN OVER YOU AND JUST CRUSH YOU. Dorothy Williamson: IT WAS ALMOST SURREAL, THE DUST. THERE'S NOWHERE YOU CAN RUN. YOU CAN TRY TO GET OUT OF IT BUT IT'S AS IF IT FOLLOWS YOU, FOLLOWS YOU, FOLLOWS YOU. YOU CAN'T ESCAPE IT. LOOKING BACK ON IT, I THINK IT CARRIED WITH IT A FEELING OF... I DON'T KNOW THE WORD EXACTLY, OF... WELL, BEING UNREAL, BUT ALMOST BEING, UM... EVIL. Narrator: IT WAS A DECADE-LONG NATURAL CATASTROPHE OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS-- WHEN THE SKIES REFUSED THEIR RAINS; WHEN PLAGUES OF GRASSHOPPERS AND SWARMS OF RABBITS DESCENDED ON PARCHED FIELDS; WHEN BEWILDERED FAMILIES HUDDLED IN DARKENED ROOMS WHILE ANGRY WINDS SHOOK THEIR HOMES, PILLARS OF DUST CHOKED OUT THE MID-DAY SUN, AND THE LAND ITSELF-- THE SOIL THEY HAD DEPENDED UPON FOR THEIR SURVIVAL AND COUNTED ON FOR THEIR PROSPERITY-- TURNED AGAINST THEM WITH A LETHAL VENGEANCE. IT WAS THE WORST MAN-MADE ECOLOGICAL DISASTER IN AMERICAN HISTORY, WHEN THE IRRESISTIBLE PROMISE OF EASY MONEY AND THE HEEDLESS ACTIONS OF THOUSANDS OF FARMERS, ENCOURAGED BY THEIR GOVERNMENT, RESULTED IN A COLLECTIVE TRAGEDY THAT NEARLY SWEPT AWAY THE BREADBASKET OF THE NATION. IT'S A CLASSIC TALE OF HUMAN BEINGS PUSHING TOO HARD AGAINST NATURE AND NATURE PUSHING BACK. AND THEN IT'S AN AMERICAN BUBBLE STORY, TOO, LIKE STOCKS AND LIKE REAL ESTATE. WE THINK THAT EVERYTHING THAT GOES UP WILL NOT COME DOWN, THAT WE CAN DEFY GRAVITY, AND THAT'S WHAT WE DID HERE. Donald Worster: THE DUST BOWL BELONGS ON THE LIST OF THE TOP 3, 4, 5 ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHES IN WORLD HISTORY. BUT THOSE CATASTROPHES TOOK PLACE OVER HUNDREDS AND EVEN THOUSANDS OF YEARS OF DEFORESTATION. WE CREATED A WORLD-CLASS ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER IN A MATTER OF 40 OR 50 YEARS. Narrator: IT WAS AN EPIC OF HUMAN PAIN AND SUFFERING, WHEN NORMALLY SELF-RELIANT FATHERS FOUND THEMSELVES UNABLE TO PROVIDE FOR THEIR FAMILIES, WHEN EVEN THE VIGILANTMOTHERS WERE RE UNABLE TO STOP THE DIRT THAT INVADED THEIR HOUSES FROM KILLING THEIR CHILDREN, WHEN THOUSANDS OF DESPERATE AMERICANS WERE TORN FROM THEIR HOMES AND FORCED ON THE ROAD IN AN EXODUS UNLIKE ANYTHING THE UNITED STATES HAS EVER SEEN. BUT IT IS ALSO THE STORY OF HEROIC PERSEVERANCE, OF A RESILIENT PEOPLE WHO SOMEHOW MANAGED TO ENDURE ONE UNIMAGINABLE HARDSHIP AFTER ANOTHER TO HOLD ONTO THEIR LIVES, THEIR LAND, AND THE ONES THEY LOVED. Egan: WHAT KIND OF PLACE WAS THIS WHERE CHILDREN COULDN'T GO OUTSIDE, WHERE THE AIR ITSELF COULD KILL YOU, WHERE THE SKY SHOWERED DOWN THIS SUFFOCATING BLACKNESS THAT COULD ERASE THE SUN AT MIDDAY? WHO COULD DO THAT? AND WE DIDN'T PLAN THIS. WE DIDN'T SET OUT AND SAY, "LET'S RUIN THE SECOND-GREATEST ECOSYSTEM IN NORTH AMERICA." IT WAS A RESULT OF A WHOLE BUNCH OF THINGS THAT ARE JUST INNATE TO HUMAN BEINGS. [BIRD SINGING] Woman: "APRIL 28, 1908. "HERE I AM, AWAY OUT IN THAT NARROW STRIP OF OKLAHOMA "BETWEEN KANSAS AND THE PANHANDLE OF TEXAS. "I WISH YOU COULD SEE THIS WIDE, FREE, WESTERN COUNTRY, "WITH ITS REAL STRETCHES OF ALMOST LEVEL PRAIRIE, "COVERED WITH THE THICK, SHORT BUFFALO GRASS, "THE MARVELOUS GLORY OF ITS SUNRISES AND SUNSETS, THE BRILLIANCY OF ITS STAR-LIT SKY AT NIGHT." CAROLINE HENDERSON. Narrator: FROM THE TIME SHE WAS A YOUNG GIRL GROWING UP IN IOWA, CAROLINE BOA HENDERSON DREAMED OF HAVING A PIECE OF LAND SHE COULD CALL HER OWN. EVEN WHEN SHE WENT EAST TO MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE, WHERE SHE STUDIED LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE, HER SENIOR CLASS PROPHECY PREDICTED THAT HER FUTURE WOULD BE FOUND "SOMEWHERE ON A WESTERN RANCH." IN 1907, THE YEAR OF OKLAHOMA'S STATEHOOD, SHE FOLLOWED THAT DREAM TO THE NEWLY CREATED TEXAS COUNTY, WHERE SHE STAKED OUT A HOMESTEAD CLAIM AND MOVED INTO A ONE-ROOM SHACK, 14 FEET BY 16, WHICH SHE CALLED HER "CASTLE." A YEAR LATER, SHE MARRIED WILL HENDERSON, A LANKY KANSAS COWBOY SHE HAD HIRED TO DIG HER WELL. THEY SOON HAD A DAUGHTER, ELEANOR, AND WILL BUILT AN ADDITION TO THEIR HOME. NOW THEY WERE CLOSE TO GAINING TITLE TO THE FARM, WHERE THEY RAISED BROOM CORN, MILLET, AND MAIZE, TURKEYS, CHICKENS, AND A FEW CATTLE, PUTTING WHAT LITTLE CASH THEY EARNED INTO IMPROVEMENTS, PARTICULARLY A NEW WINDMILL TO DRAW UP WATER FOR THEIR ANIMALS, HOUSE, AND HALF-ACRE GARDEN. TO BRING IN EXTRA MONEY, CAROLINE BEGAN SUBMITTING ARTICLES ABOUT LIFE ON THE PLAINS TO MAGAZINES IN THE EAST. SHE WROTE FOR "LADIES' WORLD," WHERE HER COLUMN ENTITLED "THE HOMESTEAD LADY" BECAME A POPULAR FEATURE, AND EVENTUALLY CONTRIBUTED TO THE "ATLANTIC MONTHLY," THE NATION'S MOST PRESTIGIOUS PUBLICATION. Henderson portrayer: OUT HERE IN THIS WILDERNESS HAS COME TO ME THE VERY GREATEST AND SWEETEST AND MOST HOPEFUL HAPPINESS OF ALL MY LIFE. Charles Shaw: YOU LIVE WITH THE WIND WHEN YOU'RE OUT THERE. IT'S NOT SOMETHING THAT'S CONSTANT, BUT IT BLOWS MORE THAN IT DOESN'T BLOW. THE TIMES THAT IT BLOWS REALLY HARD MAY NOT BE THAT OFTEN, BUT THERE'S JUST A CONSTANT BREEZE, A LITTLE MURMUR OF THE WIND ACROSS THE FIELDS AND IN THE WHEAT AND IN WHAT TREES ARE THERE. YOU FEEL IT, YOU SENSE IT MORE THAN YOU HEAR IT. THAT COUNTRY WAS SO FLAT. YOU COULD SEE FOR JUST MILES. THEY USED TO SAY THAT WASN'T A FENCE BETWEEN THERE AND THE NORTH POLE. BUT GOD, IT WAS GOOD GRASS COUNTRY. MAN, IT WAS PERFECT. Calvin Crabill: IT'S SAID THAT BUFFALO GRASS WOULD HOLD THE MOISTURE SO IF YOU WENT DOWN 12 INCHES, YOU WOULD FIND MOIST EARTH. AND I REMEMBER US DIGGING DOWN, AND THE EARTH WAS MOIST DOWN THERE. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL SOIL. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL SOIL. Worster: NATURE TOOK SEVERAL MILLION YEARS TO FIND A SOLUTION TO THESE UNSTABLE SOILS, THESE HIGH WINDS, THESE TURBULENT WEATHER CONDITIONS, WHICH WAS THE GRASSES. THEY ARE AN EVOLUTIONARY ADAPTATION. THEY WORKED PRETTY WELL, FOR THE MOST PART. THEY HAVE SURVIVED HERE FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS. OUR AGRICULTURE HASN'T BEEN HERE FOR MUCH MORE THAN A CENTURY. Narrator: THE GREAT PLAINS STRETCH FROM CANADA TO SOUTHERN TEXAS, FROM THE MISSOURI RIVER TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS-- A LAND OF FEW TREES, INFREQUENT RAINS, AND CONSTANT WINDS. ONE OF THE EARLIEST AMERICAN EXPLORERS CALLED IT "ALMOST WHOLLY UNFIT FOR CULTIVATION, AND UNINHABITABLE BY A PEOPLE DEPENDING UPON AGRICULTURE." THE PLAINS INDIANS CONSIDERED IT HOME. THE SHORT GRASSES THAT COVERED THE TREELESS EXPANSE SENT TANGLED ROOTS 5 FEET BELOW THE GROUND, FORMING A DENSE SOD THAT COULD WITHSTAND THE REGION'S PERIODIC DROUGHTS AND VIOLENT WEATHER EXTREMES, NURTURING THE VAST HERDS OF BUFFALO WHO GRAZED IN NUMBERS BEYOND COUNTING. AFTER THE BISON WERE ELIMINATED AND THE NATIVE AMERICANS HAD BEEN DRIVEN ONTO RESERVATIONS, CATTLEMEN TOOK OVER IN WHAT WAS CALLED THE BEEF BONANZA. BUT SEVERE WINTERS IN THE 1880s KILLED OFF THEIR HERDS, AND THE BONANZA WENT BUST. HOMESTEADERS CAME NEXT, SWARMING ONTO LAND ONCE CONSIDERED UNSUITABLE FOR CROPS BECAUSE IT AVERAGED LESS THAN 20 INCHES OF RAIN A YEAR. UNSCRUPULOUS PROMOTERS PROMISED THAT THE VERY ACT OF FARMING WOULD INCREASE THE PRECIPITATION-- "RAIN FOLLOWS THE PLOW,"THEY SAID. A SEVERE DROUGHT IN THE 1890s PROVED THEM WRONG, AND COUNTIES THAT HAD TRIPLED AND QUADRUPLED IN POPULATION IN LESS THAN A DECADE EMPTIED JUST AS QUICKLY. THEN, IN THE EARLY PART OF THE 20th CENTURY, CONGRESS ENLARGED THE ORIGINAL HOMESTEAD ACT, ENTICING FARMERS TO SETTLE ON SOME OF THE LAST UNCLAIMED AND MOST MARGINAL SECTIONS OF PUBLIC LAND IN THE NATION. THE NEWCOMERS, NEARLY ALL OF THEM WHITE, CAME FROM EUROPE, WHERE LAND WAS UNAVAILABLE, AND PAOF THE UNITE IN THE SOUTHERN PLAINS, MANY OF THEM CONVERGED ON A NARROW STRIP OF OKLAHOMA THAT BORDERED 4 OTHER STATES-- KANSAS, TEXAS, NEW MEXICO, AND COLORADO-- A FORMERLY LAWLESS AND UNGOVERNABLE PLACE CALLED NO MAN'S LAND, THE PLACE WHERE CAROLINE HENDERSON WOULD STAKE HER FUTURE. Henderson portrayer: FARMING HERE OFTEN REMINDS ME OF THE MAN WHO, WHEN ASKED TO EMBARK UPON SOME RATHER DOUBTFUL BUSINESS VENTURE, REPLIED THAT IF HE WANTED TO GAMBLE, HE WOULD PREFER ROULETTE, WHERE THE CHANCES WERE ONLY 32-1 AGAINST HIM. Worster: THE SOUTHERN PLAINS ARE A HIGH-RISK AREA BECAUSE THEY'RE NEITHER DESERT NOR HUMID FOREST OR HUMID GRASSLAND, EVEN. THEY'RE ON THE EDGES OF VULNERABILITY. YOU'VE GOT AN AREA THAT THE RAINFALL IS LESS THAN 20 INCHES A YEAR. IN SOME YEARS, YOU GET ENOUGH RAINFALL YOU CAN MAKE A GOOD CROP; THE NEXT YEAR, YOU GET HALF THAT AMOUNT OF RAINFALL. IT IS ONE OF THE RISKIEST AREAS IN THE WORLD FOR AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION. R. Douglas Hurt: THE FARM MEN AND WOMEN OF THE SOUTHERN GREAT PLAINS ARE THE GREATEST "NEXT YEAR" PEOPLE IN THE WORLD. THEY REALLY LIVE THEIR LIVES WITH 3 LITTLE WORDS-- "IF IT RAINS." IF IT RAINS, THE DUST WOULD SETTLE. IF IT RAINED, THE DROUGHT WOULD BE BROKEN. IF IT RAINED, THE WHEAT CROP WOULD GROW. IF IT RAINED, THINGS WERE GOOD. IF IT DIDN'T, THEY WERE A "NEXT YEAR"PEOPLE. Narrator: NOT LONG AFTER CAROLINE HENDERSON MOVED TO NO MAN'S LAND IN 1907, THE SOUTHERN PLAINS ENTERED A WET PERIOD, AND THE PACE OF SETTLEMENT QUICKENED. REAL-ESTATE SYNDICATES BEGAN BUYING BIG RANCHES FOR $5.00 AN ACRE AND CARVED THEM UP INTO SMALLER PARCELS FOR SALE AT 3 TIMES THE PRICE. RAILROAD COMPANIES DID THE SAME THING WITH THE VAST TRACTS THEY HAD BEEN GIVEN BY THE GOVERNMENT. SPECIAL EXCURSION TRAINS BROUGHT PROSPECTIVE BUYERS TO THE REGION BY THE THOUSANDS. SALESMEN ASSURED THEM THAT NONE OTHER THAN THE FORMER CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS HAD DETERMINED THAT THE CLIMATE WAS UNDERGOING A PERMANENT SHIFT-- PRECIPITATION WAS INCREASING, WHILE THE WINDS WERE SLOWING DOWN. ANOTHER EXPERT DECLARED THAT REMOVING THE COVER OF PRAIRIE GRASSES ALLOWED MORE RAINFALL TO PENETRATE THE SOIL. TOWNS SPRANG UP OVERNIGHT. IN CIMARRON COUNTY, OKLAHOMA, THE DEVELOPERS OF BOISE CITY SOLD HOUSE LOTS TO BUYERS WHO DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO COME FOR AN INSPECTION. Egan: BOISE CITY IS NAMED FOR THE FRENCH WORD "LES BOIS"--TREE. THERE WERE NO TREES. THIS IS IN THE PANHANDLE OF OKLAHOMA. THERE WERE NO TREES. THEY ADVERTISED IT AS HAVING ARTESIAN WELLS, BIG MAIN STREETS WHERE BANKERS COULD LIVE, AND STATELY ELMS AND MAPLES. THERE WERE NO TREES, THERE WAS NO WATER, THERE WERE NO HOUSES, BUT THEY SOLD LOTS HERE. THIS IS ONE OF THE FEW TIMES IN AMERICAN REAL ESTATE WHERE REAL-ESTATE PROMOTERS HAVE ACTUALLY BEEN CONVICTED, SENT TO FEDERAL PENITENTIARY, AND ONE OF THEM ROTTED AND DIED IN THAT PENITENTIARY AFTER THE REAL-ESTATE SCAM THAT WAS BOISE CITY. Narrator: "OKLAHOMA,"ONE RAILROAD BROCHURE BRAGGED, "GROWS BETTER CATTLE THAN TEXAS, "BETTER CORN THAN KANSAS OR MINNESOTA, "BETTER COTTON THAN MISSISSIPPI OR ALABAMA, AND BETTER SWINE THAN ANYWHERE." BUT INCREASINGLY, IN WESTERN OKLAHOMA AND THROUGHOUT THE SOUTHERN PLAINS, THE FOCUS WAS ALMOST EXCLUSIVELY ON WHEAT. WHEN THE GREAT WAR BROKE OUT IN EUROPE, GERMAN BLOCKADES CUT OFF ACCESS TO RUSSIAN WHEAT. IN THE UNITED STATES, FARMERS MOBILIZED TO FEED THE ALLIES. UNDER THE SLOGAN, "WHEAT WILL WIN THE WAR," PRICES WERE SET AT $2.00 A BUSHEL, TWICE THE PREVIOUS RATE. IN 5 YEARS, MORE THAN 11 MILLION ACRES OF VIRGIN SOIL WERE PLOWED FOR THE FIRST TIME-- AN AREA TWICE THE SIZE OF NEW JERSEY CONVERTED FROM GRASSLANDS TO WHEAT FIELDS. WHEN THE WAR ENDED, WHEAT PRICES DROPPED, BUT THE PLOWING AND PLANTING ONLY INCREASED. IT WOULD COME TO BE CALLED "THE GREAT PLOW UP." Pamela Riney-Kehrberg: IF YOU HAD BEEN A WHEAT FARMER IN THE 1920s, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN RELATIVELY EASY TO MAKE MONEY. YOU NEEDED LESS LAND TO GROW WHEAT THAN YOU NEEDED TO RUN CATTLE. SO THE INVESTMENT WAS LESS. I HAD A FARMER TELL ME THAT YOU JUST PUT SEED IN THE GROUND AND BOOM, YOU HAD A CROP. Imogene Glover: IT WAS REALLY ADVERTISED ALL OVER THE NATION AS THE PLACE TO COME AND LIVE IN THE TWENTIES. OH, IT WAS GREEN, LEVEL, AND PRETTY, AND THE GRASS WAS BEAUTIFUL. WE HAD TALL GRASS, AND I REMEMBER RUNNING BAREFOOTED ALONG IN THIS DITCH, WHICH WAS BIG CLODS OF COOL, DAMP GROUND. Narrator: IMOGENE GLOVER'S FAMILY HAD MOVED TO A 3-ROOM HOUSE ON LAND IN TEXAS COUNTY, OKLAHOMA, NOT FAR FROM CAROLINE AND WILL HENDERSON. HER FATHER RAISED CATTLE, TURKEYS, AND ESPECIALLY WHEAT. Glover: HE WAS A GAMBLER, BUT I THINK EVERY FARMER'S A GAMBLER. THEY HAVE TO GAMBLE THAT WHAT THEY'RE PUTTING INTO THE GROUND IS GOING TO GROW AND PRODUCE, AND THEY'LL GET BETTER OFF. THEY ALWAYS FEEL THAT WAY IF THEY'RE A FARMER. Narrator: IN THE SOUTHWESTERN CORNER OF KANSAS, EDGAR COEN HAD TAKEN OVER 160 ACRES FROM A FAILED HOMESTEADER. AT FIRST, HE MOVED HIS WIFE RENA AND THEIR CHILDREN INTO A ONE-ROOM 10-BY-12-FOOT DUGOUT THAT EXTENDED ONLY 2 1/2 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND, WITH SMALL WINDOWS TO LET IN A LITTLE LIGHT. AS THE FAMILY GREW, EDGAR ADDED MORE ROOMS, THEN AN ABOVE-GROUND ENTRANCE BIG ENOUGH TO DOUBLE AS A KITCHEN. BY SCRIMPING AND SAVING, HE WAS ABLE TO ACQUIRE 160 MORE ACRES AND BUILD A BARN FOR HIS LIVESTOCK. Dale Coen: OH, IT WAS REAL NICE. SUMMERTIME WAS PRETTY BALMY-- ALWAYS COOLED OFF GOOD AT NIGHT. A LOT OF TIMES, WE WOULD SLEEP OUT UNDERNEATH THE TREES OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT. IT WAS A REALLY GOOD ATMOSPHERE. OF COURSE, IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN AN ARID COUNTRY. IT NEVER HAS BEEN LOTS OF RAIN. BUT IT WAS A REALLY IDEAL PLACE TOSE A FAMILIL Egan: FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THEIR FAMILY HISTORY, MOST OF THESE PEOPLE OWNED A PIECE OF DIRT. THEY WERE SCOTS-IRISH WHO'D BEEN KICKED AROUND, THE OLD CONFEDERACY. THEY WERE SO-CALLED POOR WHITE TRASH. THEY WERE THESE GERMANS FROM THE RUSSIAN STEPPE. THEY WERE LATINOS WHO CAME UP FROM THE SOUTH. THEY WERE FOLKS THAT NEVER OWNED ANYTHING. AND THEY HAD WONDERFUL YEARS, 10, 12, 15, WHERE EVERYTHING WAS RIGHT. Narrator: MODERN MACHINERY MADE WHEAT FARMING MORE EFFICIENT AND STILL PROFITABLE EVEN AT PRICES OF $1.00 PER BUSHEL. POWERFUL GASOLINE TRACTORS PULLING BROAD ARRAYS OF DISC PLOWS TURNED THE SOD WITH EASE. Worster: IN THE 1920s, THERE WAS A CONCERTED MOVEMENT AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS OF AMERICAN SOCIETY TO TURN AGRICULTURE INTO AN INDUSTRIAL MODEL, TO MAKE EVERY FARM INTO A FACTORY. WELL, YOU COULD NEVER HAVE PLOWED UP 30-SOME MILLION ACRES OF LAND WITH HORSE AND A WOODEN PLOW OR EVEN A STEEL PLOW. TRACTORS WERE GOING ALL NIGHT LONG WITH HEADLIGHTS BURNING TO PLOW UP THIS LAND, TO GET IT INTO PRODUCTION. Narrator: IN SOUTHEASTERN COLORADO, CALVIN CRABILL'S FATHER HOPED TO MAKE A LIFE FOR HIMSELF AND HIS FAMILY RAISING HORSES AND CATTLE. BUT TO GET AHEAD, HE TOOK A JOB DRIVING A TRACTOR ON OTHER PEOPLE'S LAND. Calvin Crabill: HE WORKED NIGHTS. SOMEBODY ELSE WORKED DAYS, AND SO HE WORKED NIGHTS. HE KNEW THAT BUFFALO GRASS WAS THE NATURAL TURF OF THAT COUNTRY, AND IT WAS GRAZING COUNTRY. HE DIDN'T STAY WITH THE TRACTORING THING TOO LONG BECAUSE I THINK IT JUST GOT HIS HEART. HE COULDN'T STAND IT. EVEN THOUGH HE NEEDED THE MONEY, HE QUIT DOING IT. HE JUST COULDN'T STAND TO DO IT. HE WAS REALLY A STOCKMAN, AND HE KNEW IT WAS ALL WRONG, AND HE PAID THE PRICE FOR IT LATER. Narrator: IN PREVIOUS YEARS, FARMERS HAD USED A PLOW CALLED A LISTER THAT SPLIT THE SOIL IN TWO DIRECTIONS AND DUG A DEEP FURROW THAT CAUGHT AND HELD BLOWING SOIL. NOW THE MOST COMMONLY USED PLOW WAS CALLED A ONE-WAY, WHICH WAS CHEAPER AND TORE THROUGH THE SOD AT A FASTER RATE. Wayne Lewis: IN THE LATE TWENTIES, THE CROPS WERE GOOD, THE PRICES WERE GOOD, AND SO EVERYBODY-- THE THING TO DO WAS TO BREAK OUT EVERYTHING AND GET IT IN WHEAT. AND PRACTICALLY EVERYBODY DID THAT. Egan: THIS BOOM WAS ONE OF THE GREAT CLASSIC AMERICAN BUBBLES. WE'VE HAD A LOT OF THEM IN OUR HISTORY, AND THIS WAS ONE. THEY HAD THESE SUITCASE FARMERS WHO WOULD GET OFF THE TRAIN, AND THEY CALLED THEM SUITCASE FARMERS BECAUSE THEY WERE JUST DANDIES FROM THE CITY. THEY WEREN'T FARMERS. THEY HAD THEIR SUITCASES, AND THEY'D GO OUT AND THEY'D CLAIM THEIR SQUARE MILE BECAUSE THEY ENLARGED THE HOMESTEAD ACT. THEN THEY'D GET SOMEONE TO PLOW UP THE GRASS, THROW SOME AND THEN GO BACK TO TOWN AND COME BACK IN THE SPRING AND HARVEST THIS THING. AND IT WAS A FOOL'S GAME. YOU COULD MAKE A LOT OF MONEY. Henderson portrayer: THE SUITCASE FARMERS HAVE HIRED THE PREPARATION OF LARGE AREAS OF LAND ALL AROUND US WHICH NO LONGER REPRESENT THE IDEA OF HOMES AT ALL, BUT JUST PARTS OF A POTENTIAL FACTORY FOR THE LOW-COST PRODUCTION OF WHEAT. Narrator: DURING THE LAST 5 YEARS OF THE 1920s ALONE, ANOTHER 5,260,000 ACRES OF NATIVE SOD-- AN AREA THE SIZE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE-- WAS TURNED OVER ON THE SOUTHERN PLAINS. "THE SOIL,"A FEDERAL AGENCY CONFIDENTLY PROCLAIMED, "IS THE ONE INDESTRUCTIBLE, IMMUTABLE ASSET "THAT THE NATION POSSESSES. "IT IS THE ONE RESOURCE THAT CANNOT BE EXHAUSTED, THAT CANNOT BE USED UP." Worster: THE GREAT PLOW UP HAD GOING FOR IT AMPLE RAINFALL FOR A PERIOD OF 10 OR 15 YEARS, AND IT JUST KEPT ENCOURAGING MORE AND MORE. PEOPLE THOUGHT, AS THEY THINK AGAIN AND AGAIN, THAT WE HAVE TURNED THE CORNER ON CLIMATE HERE. WE CAN SEE FAR INTO THE FUTURE, AND IT'S ALL WET. THEY KNEW THAT THERE'D BEEN SEVERE DROUGHTS IN THE 1890s, BUT PEOPLE FORGOT ABOUT THOSE. THEY THOUGHT THAT WAS THE PAST, THIS IS NOW, AND THIS WILL BE THE FUTURE. Narrator: A HANDFUL OF OLD-TIMERS, ESPECIALLY THE CATTLEMEN, WHO HAD BEEN THROUGH THOSE DROUGHTS, WEREN'T SO SURE. TO THEM, THE SOUTHERN PLAINS WERE A GRASSLAND, AND THE SOD SHOULD NEVER BE TURNED. BAM WHITE, WHO WAS A HALF-APACHE, HALF-ANGLO COWBOY LIVING IN THE TEXAS PANHANDLE, SAID TO HIS SON WHO ASKED HIM WHAT WAS THE PROBLEM, HE SAID, "LOOK AT IT. WRONG SIDE UP. IT'S WRONG SIDE UP." Henderson portrayer: A FEW DAYS AGO, I RODE TO THE STORE FOR THE MAIL. COMING HOME, I SAW THE WHOLE COUNTRY TRANSFORMED IN THE SUNSET GLOW-- ALL THE BROWN PRAIRIE TURNED TO GOLD. I COULD FEEL ONCE MORE THE LURE OF THIS GREAT, LONELY LAND, WAITING WITH ITS STORES OF FERTILITY ALL UNTOUCHED FOR THOSE WHO SHALL ONE DAY LEARN TO MEET ITS DEMANDS, TO GIVE TO IT THEIR PATIENT THOUGHT AND LABOR. Narrator: AMONG CAROLINE HENDERSON'S NEIGHBORS IN TEXAS COUNTY WAS THE FAMILY OF HARRY FORESTER. HE HAD GROWN UP IN ARKANSAS AND EASTERN TEXAS BEFORE FILING ON A HOMESTEAD IN NO MAN'S LAND, WHERE HE AND HIS WIFE RAISED 9 CHILDREN. AS TIMES IMPROVED, HIS DREAMS HAD EXPANDED, ESPECIALLY FOR HIS 5 SONS. ONE OF HIS GOALS WAS TO LEAVE AS A BEQUEST TO EACH OF HIS SONS A SECTION-- THAT, IS A SQUARE MILE-- OF GOOD, ARABLE, WHEAT PRODUCTION LAND, WHICH WAS SOMETHING THAT HE FELT WOULD GUARANTEE THEIR HAVING A GOOD LIVING AND A GOOD LIFE. THAT WAS HIS GOAL. Narrator: IN 1928, TO FULFILL HIS DREAM, FORESTER LEVERAGED THE HOMESTEAD HE ALREADY OWNED WITH A MORTGAGE TO BUY EVEN MORE WHEAT-GROWING LAND NEAR BOISE CITY. Forester: HE HAD USED ALL HIS PROPERTY AND ALL HIS LANDS AND ALL HE HAD ACCRUED FROM 1906 TO 1928. BECAUSE OF HIS DREAM, HE ESSENTIALLY PUT IT ALL AT RISK, AND ULTIMATELY, IT PROVED TO BE A BAD TIME TO MAKE A MOVE. Narrator: ON OCTOBER 29, 1929-- THE DAY THAT WOULD BE REMEMBERED AS "BLACK TUESDAY," THE STOCK MARKET CRASHED ON WALL STREET, PUNCTURING A SPECULATIVE BUBBLE THAT HAD BEEN BUILDING THROUGHOUT THE 1920s. BY THE END OF THE YEAR, THE FINANCIAL PANIC BEGAN TO SPREAD TO OTHER PARTS OF THE ECONOMY, THROWING ONE AND A HALF MILLION AMERICANS OUT OF WORK. A YEAR LATER, THAT NUMBER WOULD TRIPLE, AND THE NATION DESCENDED INTO THE GREAT DEPRESSION. BUT BACK IN NO MAN'S LAND, THE FUTURE STILL LOOKED BRIGHT. THE U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PRONOUNCED THE SOUTHERN PLAINS AS ONE OF THE MOST PROSPEROUS AREAS IN THE ENTIRE NATION. AN ADVERTISEMENT IN THE "BOISE CITY NEWS"IMAGINED A MANHATTAN-STYLE SKYLINE, WITH THE PREDICTION, "SOON YOU AVE YOUR OWN EMPIRE SWI O STATE BUILDING, RIGHT ACROSS FROM KIRBY'S KASH GROCERY." Pauline Hodges: THE FIRST TWO YEARS, THEY THOUGHT IT DIDN'T AFFECT THEM, THAT IT WAS BACK EAST-- "OH, WELL, YOU KNOW, THAT WAS CHICAGO. "THAT WAS NEW YORK. IT WASN'T HERE. THIS WON'T HAPPEN TO US." Glover: WE HAD THE BEST CROP THAT WE HAD HAD IN 1929. THAT'S WHEN THE MARKET WAS GREAT, AND THE PEOPLE THAT DID PLANT WHEAT HAD A BETTER YEAR THAN THEY'D EVER HAD, AND THEY JUST THOUGHT THEY'D GET WEALTHY. IT WAS A GREAT TIME, AND EVERYTHING WAS LOOKING UP. Narrator: IN THE PANHANDLE TOWN OF FOLLETT, TEXAS, TRIXIE TRAVIS BROWN'S FATHER DECIDED TIMES WERE RIGHT TO START A NEW BUSINESS AND BUILD A NEW HOUSE. Trixie Travis Brown: HE AND HIS DAD AND BROTHER OPENED A HARDWARE STORE IN FOLLETT. FOLLETT WAS A THRIVING LITTLE TOWN. WE HAD A MAIN STREET THAT HAD BUSINESSES ON BOTH SIDES OF THE STREET. AFTER MY SISTER WAS BORN IN '29, WE MOVED INTO THE NEW HOUSE. IT WAS GREAT. THINGS SEEMED TO BE GOING WELL FOR MY DAD, FOR GRANDPA. Narrator: MOST OF WHAT PEOPLE KNEW ABOUT THE MISERY GRIPPING THE REST OF AMERICA THEY LEARNED FROM READING NEWSPAPERS AND WATCHING NEWSREELS AT THE PALACE THEATER IN BOISE CITY OR THE MISSION THEATRE IN DALHART, TEXAS. BUT AS THE DEPRESSION DEEPENED ELSEWHERE, PRICES OF FARM COMMODITIES COLLAPSED, PLUNGING ALL OF RURAL AMERICA INTO CRISIS. IN 1930, WHEAT DROPPED FROM A DOLLAR TO 70 CENTS A BUSHEL. NOW THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BEGGED FARMERS TO REDUCE THEIR ACREAGE. INSTEAD, FARMERS DECIDED IF THEY COULDN'T MAKE AS MUCH MONEY PER BUSHEL, THEY WOULD SIMPLY HARVEST MORE BUSHELS. SO THEY PLOWED UP MORE LAND-- HALF A MILLION MORE ACRES IN THE COUNTIES AROUND NO MAN'S LAND. THE WHOLE AREA, ONE AGRICULTURAL AGENT SAID, HAD GONE "WHEAT MAD." Worster: THE ANSWER TO FARMERS' PROBLEMS ON THE GREAT PLAINS IS BASICALLY ALWAYS MORE-- MORE PRODUCTION. IF YOU'RE HURTING FINANCIALLY, IF YOUR CROP PRICES ARE LOW, YOU PRODUCE MORE TO MAKE UP. IF YOU'RE DOING WELL, THE BUSHEL PRICES ARE HIGH, YOU PRODUCE MORE. IT'S ALWAYS "MORE PRODUCTION" IS THE ANSWER TO THE PROBLEM. SO IN 1930, DESPITE LOW PRICES, FARMERS WERE PRODUCING MORE WHEAT THAN EVER BEFORE. Egan: THIS BIG PLOW UP WAS THE FINAL SURGE THAT CAME AFTER WHEAT HAD CRASHED. IF YOU HAD 10,000 ACRES AND YOU HAD TAKEN OUT A BANK LOAN TO SERVICE YOUR 10,000 ACRES, SUDDENLY YOU'RE GETTING ONLY HALF WHAT YOU GOT THAT YEAR BEFORE. THE ONLY WAY YOU COULD COVER YOUR NUT WAS TO DOUBLE THE AMOUNT OF LAND YOU PLOWED UP. SO, IT SENT THEM INTO THE FIELDS FOR THIS FRANTIC LAST-MINUTE EFFORT TO TURN THE LAND. Worster: IT WAS A RECIPE FOR ECONOMIC DISASTER IN THE SENSE THAT THEY WERE PRODUCING AN ENORMOUS GLUT OF WHEAT THAT DIDN'T HAVE A MARKET. IT WAS A RECIPE FOR DISASTER IN THAT IF A DROUGHT COMES ALONG, THEY ARE LYING THERE VULNERABLE WITH SO MUCH LAND THAT HAS BEEN EXPOSED. Narrator: IT SNOWED AND RAINED THAT WINTER, AND THE SPRING OF 1931 BROUGHT ADEQUATE MOISTURE. BY HARVEST TIME, THE WINTER WHEAT WAS SHOULDER HIGH, AND FARMERS REALIZED THEY HAD A BONANZA ON THEIR HANDS. Henderson portrayer: I HAVE NEVER SEEN A MORE BEAUTIFUL HARVEST-- ONE OF THE BEST WHEAT CROPS THIS COUNTRY HAS EVER PRODUCED IN OUR 24 YEARS OF FARMING. Narrator: OVER THE YEARS, CAROLINE AND WILL HENDERSON HAD INCREASED THEIR HOLDINGS TO 640 ACRES--A SQUARE MILE. THEY HAD PURCHASED MECHANIZED EQUIPMENT TO REPLACE THEIR HORSES AND MADE STEADY IMPROVEMENTS TO THEIR PROPERTY. THEY NOW HAD A REAL HOUSE, WITH A FULL BASEMENT, 5 ROOMS ON THE FIRST FLOOR, AND A BIG UNFINISHED ROOM ON THE SECOND. THEY HAD AN INDOOR BATHROOM-- BUT AS YET, NO RUNNING WATER INSIDE THE HOUSE-- AND HAD PURCHASED A TELEPHONE. BUT WHEN THE BUMPER CROP OF 1931 WAS HARVESTED, THERE WAS NO ONE TO BUY IT. GRAIN ELEVATORS OVERFLOWED, AND GIANT DUNES OF WHEAT WERE PILED OUT ON THE OPEN GROUND. PRICES HAD ALREADY COLLAPSED TO 25 CENTS A BUSHEL OR LOWER-- ROUGHLY HALF OF WHAT IT COST THE FARMERS TO GROW IT. "WE ARE TOO BIG TO CRY ABOUT IT,"CAROLINE WROTE, "AND IT HURTS US TOO MUCH TO LAUGH." Hodges: I REMEMBER MY FATHER SAYING THAT HIS BANKER HAD TOLD HIM THAT PRICES CERTAINLY WOULDN'T GO ANY LOWER THAN 95 CENTS A BUSHEL, WHICH, COMPARED TO WHAT IT HAD BEEN IN THE 1920s, WAS REALLY LOW. AND MY DAD USED TO LAUGH IRONICALLY AND SAY THE NEXT DAY IT DROPPED TO 23 CENTS A BUSHEL-- 60 CENTS IN ONE DAY. IT WASN'T UNTIL THE PRICE OF WHEAT DROPPED SO DRASTICALLY THAT WE REALLY FELT THE DEPRESSION OUT HERE. Narrator: LIKE SO MANY OF THEIR NEIGHBORS, PAULINE HODGES' PARENTS BELIEVED THE SITUATION WOULD NOT LAST FOR LONG. THEY WERE, AFTER ALL, "NEXT YEAR"PEOPLE. [WIND BLOWING] A LITTLE AFTER NOONTIME ON JANUARY 21, 1932, A DUST CLOUD APPEARED OUTSIDE OF AMARILLO, TEXAS. DUST STORMS WEREN'T UNCOMMON IN THE AREA, BUT THIS ONE ROSE 10,000 FEET INTO THE AIR, CARRIED WINDS OF 60 MILES PER HOUR. THE LOCAL WEATHER BUREAU DIDN'T QUITE KNOW WHAT TO MAKE OF IT, CALLING IT "AWE-INSPIRING" AND "MOST SPECTACULAR." EVEN OLD-TIMERS SAID THEY'D NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT IN THEIR LIVES. Robert "Boots"McCoy: SCARED US TO DEATH. WE DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO THINK. WE WAS AT HOME. DAD WAS GONE, LOOKING FOR CATTLE. MOM AND SISTER AND I, WE WAS OUTSIDE. WE LOOKED AT THAT, AND WE JUST DIDN'T KNOW WHAT IT WAS GONNA BE. FIRST STARTED WAY OFF, IT WAS REAL DARK. THE CLOSER IT GOT, IT GOT BROWN, AND WHEN IT HIT IN 30 MINUTES, YOU COULDN'T-- IT'S JUST LIKE MIDNIGHT. MIDDLE OF DAY WAS JUST LIKE MIDNIGHT WITH NO STARS--JUST DARK. Narrator: BOOTS McCOY'S FAMILY LIVED IN TEXAS COUNTY, 6 MILES WEST OF THE HENDERSONS. HE AND HIS BIG SISTER, RUBY PAULINE, HUDDLED WITH THEIR MOTHER, WHO WAS PREGNANT. IT'D BE STILL, BE JUST CALM AS IT COULD BE, AND THEN WHEN THAT DUST GOT THERE, WHAM! IT WOULD HIT YOU. IT WAS JUST A-ROLLIN'. IT WAS SCARY. IT SCARED THE HECK OUT OF US. MOTHER WOULD PRAY ABOUT IT, YOU KNOW. US KIDS, OF COURSE, WE WAS LITTLE, AND WE STAYED PRETTY CLOSE TO MA, I GUARANTEE YOU. Narrator: THE STORM PASSED QUICKLY, BUT THAT WINTER OF 1931-32 WAS UNCOMMONLY DRY. SO WAS THE SPRING THAT FOLLOWED. THE FIERCE WINDS COMMON TO THE SEASON BEGAN PICKING UP SAND AND SOIL FROM THE BARE FIELDS AGAIN AND MOVING IT ACROSS THE LANDSCAPE. THE WEATHER BUREAU BEGAN CLASSIFYING THE STORMS BY THEIR SEVERITY. SOME STORMS, TAKING THE COARSER, SANDIER SOILS, MOVED ALONG THE GROUND FOR A FEW MILES BEFORE DISAPPEARING; OTHERS CREATED A LIGHT HAZE IN THE SKY. THE WORST ONES REDUCED VISIBILITY TO LESS THAN A QUARTER MILE. NO MAN'S LAND HAD 14 OF THOSE IN 1932. Floyd Coen: THE DUST STORMS WAS THE MOST FEARSOME LOOKING, BUT AS FAR AS DAMAGE, I WOULD SAY THE SAND STORMS DID MORE DAMAGE TO OUR LAND AND OUR CATTLE AND SO FORTH. YOU DON'T HEAR MUCH ABOUT THE SAND STORMS, BUT WE HAD A LOT OF THOSE. IT WOULDN'T GET VERY DARK, BUT THEY WERE A NUISANCE TO BE OUT IN, AND IT'D JUST PEPPER YOU, LIKE SAND A-HITTIN' YOU. IT'D BE VERY ABRASIVE. AND THEY MIGHT LAST TWO OR THREE DAYS. ONE TIME, MY MOTHER MARKED 21 DAYS ON THE CALENDAR THAT WE HAD SAND STORMS EVERY DAY. Glover: I HAD TO RUN GET THE CHICKENS IN WHEN WE'D SEE THEM A-COMIN', AND IF I DIDN'T GET BACK TO THE HOUSE OR TO THE CELLAR IN TIME, MY BARE LEGS WOULD REALLY FEEL THAT SAND AND GRIT. BUT I KNEW THE WAY. I THINK I COULD RUN BLINDFOLDED FROM THE CHICKEN HOUSE TO THE HOUSE AND INTO THE CELLAR. BY 8:00, THAT WIND WOULD BE HITTING, AND DIRT, AND BY THE TIME I WOULD WALK FROM THAT HOUSE TO THAT ROAD, WHICH WAS AS FAR AS FROM HERE ACROSS THE STREET OUT THERE, MY LEGS WOULD BE BLISTERED, THAT DIRT WOULD BE COMING AND HITTING THERE SO HARD. Narrator: IN THE MIDST OF THE RELENTLESS STORMS, BOOTS McCOY'S MOTHER WENT INTO LABOR. IT TURNED OUT SHE WAS CARRYING TWINS. SHE NAMED THEM ROY AND TROY, BUT THEY WERE IN TROUBLE FROM THE VERY BEGINNING. McCoy: THEY LASTED, BEST I COULD REMEMBER, ABOUT 12 HOURS. AND, THE DOCTOR JUST COULDN'T SAVE THEM. AND WHEN WE BURIED THEM, THE NEIGHBORS BUILT A COFFIN, AND ONE OF THEM WENT TO JC PENNEY STORE AND GOT SOME NUMBER 12 SHOE BOXES, AND WE PUT SOME COTTON AND PUT THEM BOYS IN THAT-- PUT THEM IN THAT COFFIN. THAT'S THE WAY THEY WAS BURIED. Henderson portrayer: MANY A TIME, I HAVE FOUND MYSELF TIRED OUT FROM HAVING TRIED, UNCONSCIOUSLY AND WITHOUT SUCCESS, TO BRING THE DISTANT RAIN CLOUDS NEARER TO WATER OUR FIELDS. I AM BEGINNING TO SEE HOW WORSE THAN USELESS IS THIS EXAGGERATED FEELING OF ONE'S OWN RESPONSIBILITY, TO UNDERSTAND A LITTLE THE THOUGHT OF SOMEONE WHO WROTE LONG AGO, "HE THAT OBSERVETH THE WIND SHALL NOT SOW, AND HE THAT REGARDETH THE CLOUDS SHALL NOT REAP." Narrator: FOR CAROLINE AND WILL HENDERSON-- AND ALL THE OTHER FARMERS IN THE AREA-- THE HARVEST OF 1932 WAS A DOUBLE DISASTER. PRICES FOR WHEAT PLUMMETED EVEN LOWER THAN THE PREVIOUS YEAR, AND THERE WASN'T MUCH OF A CROP TO HARVEST ANYWAY. Henderson portrayer: JUDGING BY ANY STANDARDS THAT THE WORLD WOULD RECOGNIZE, WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN FURTHER AHEAD IF WE COULD HAVE SPENT THE YEAR IN SLEEP. Narrator: THAT FALL, FARMERS WENT BACK TO THE FIELDS AND PLANTED WINTER WHEAT FOR NEXT YEAR. Henderson portrayer: PEOPLE STILL TOIL AMAZINGLY AND MAKE A CONSCIOUS EFFORT TO KEEP CHEERFUL, BUT IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THE EFFORT GROWS MORE APPARENT. BEHIND THE CHARACTERISTIC AMERICAN NONCHALANCE, ONE DETECTS A GROWING ANXIETY, ESPECIALLY ABOUT THE COMING WINTER. Clarence Beck: YOU KEPT THINKING THAT TOMORROW THINGS WILL CHANGE, SO YOU KEPT DOING WHAT YOU WERE DOING. YOU THOUGHT, MAYBE THERE ARE SOME THINGS THAT WE CAN DO THAT WILL BE A LITTLE BETTER THAN THE WAY THEY ARE. WE COULDN'T LIVE WITHOUT HOPING THAT THINGS WERE GONNA CHANGE FOR THE BETTE Lewis: WE ALWAYS HAD HOPE. NEXT YEAR WAS GONNA BE BETTER, AND EVEN THIS YEAR WAS GONNA BE BETTER. WE LEARNED SLOWLY, AND WHAT DIDN'T WORK, YOU TRIED IT HARDER THE NEXT TIME. YOU DIDN'T TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT; YOU JUST TRIED HARDER THE SAME THING THAT DIDN'T WORK. Henderson portrayer: BY SACRIFICING THE SMALL RESERVES WE HAD HELD AGAINST THE DAYS OF DROUGHT AND DISASTER, WE HAVE SUCCEEDED SO FAR IN KEEPING ON A CASH BASIS. WE HAVE DISCONNECTED THE TELEPHONE, STOPPED THE DAILY PAPER, SUBSTITUTED CHEAP LYE FOR WASHING POWDER, SO THAT MY HANDS ARE ROUGH AND UNCOMFORTABLE, BUT OF ALL OUR LOSSES, THE MOST DISTRESSING IS THE LOSS OF OUR SELF-RESPECT. HOW CAN WE FEEL THAT OUR WORK HAS ANY DIGNITY OR IMPORTANCE WHEN THE WORLD PLACES SO LOW A VALUE ON THE PRODUCTS OF OUR TOIL? Narrator: THINGS WERE EVEN WORSE FOR CAROLINE'S NEIGHBORS, THE FORESTERS. HARRY FORESTER'S CROP HAD WITHERED IN THE DROUGHT, AND WHAT LITTLE WHEAT HE HAD MANAGED TO HARVEST BROUGHT IN ONLY 17 CENTS A BUSHEL. THE LAND HE HAD PURCHASED NEAR BOISE CITY TURNED OUT TO HAVE A PRIOR CLAIM ON ITS TITLE AND WAS TAKEN FROM HIM. THE MORTGAGE ON HIS ORIGINAL HOMESTEAD, WHICH HE HAD USED TO BUY THE EXTRA LAND, COULD NOT BE PAID, AND HE LOST IT, TOO. HE WAS FORCED TO MOVE HIS WIFE AND 9 CHILDREN TO RENTED LAND. HARRY FORESTER'S DREAM OF AMASSING ENOUGH PROPERTY TO GIVE EACH OF HIS 5 SONS 640 ACRES WAS IN SHAMBLES. NOW HE WOULD STRUGGLE SIMPLY TO KEEP HIS LARGE FAMILY FED AND WARM THROUGH THE WINTER. Robert Forester: ONE THING, WE WOULD DO CHORES. OF COURSE, DOING CHORES FOR A YOUNGSTER LIKE ME WAS RIDING ALONG ON THE WAGON AND PICKING UP COW CHIPS AND COMING IN AND PILING THEM BEHIND THE HOUSE SO THAT WE WOULD HAVE FUEL FOR THE FIRES. OF COURSE, THEY DON'T SMELL AT THAT POINT IN TIME, UNLESS YOU HAPPEN TO GET ONE THAT'S A LITTLE BIT FRESH. Riney-Kehrberg: AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS WHOLE SITUATION, MOST PEOPLE ARE THINKING THIS IS A SHORT-TERM PROBLEM. WE'VE SEEN DROUGHTS BEFORE, WE'VE SEEN DUST STORMS BEFORE, WE'VE HAD HIGH WINDS BEFORE, AND YOU WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR. AND EVERYONE ASSUMED THAT NEXT YEAR THINGS WOULD BE BETTER. AND THEN...THE NEXT YEAR, THEY ASSUME THINGS WILL BE BETTER, AND IT DOESN'T GET BETTER. Narrator: THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES, THINGS WERE GETTING WORSE. TENS OF THOUSANDS OF BANKS AND BUSINESSES HAD FAILED. IN JUST ONE DAY, ONE QUARTER OF THE ENTIRE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI WENT UNDER THE AUCTIONEER'S HAMMER. FROM SAN FRANCISCO TO NEW YORK, THOUSANDS OF AMERICANS WERE REDUCED TO LIVING IN SHANTYTOWNS CALLED "HOOVERVILLES" AFTER THE PRESIDENT THEY HAD COME TO BLAME FOR EVERYTHING. THAT NOVEMBER, VOTERS TOOK OUT THEIR DESPAIR AND ANGER ON HERBERT HOOVER AND ELECTED FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT TO LEAD THE NATION THROUGH THE CRISIS. THE NORMALLY REPUBLICAN COUNTIES OF THE SOUTHERN PLAINS WENT DEMOCRATIC. ROOSEVELT, THEY HOPED, WOULD AT LEAST TRY TO HELP THEM. BUT EVEN A PRESIDENT COULDN'T CONTROL THE WEATHER. THERE WAS NO RAIN AT ALL IN CIMARRON COUNTY, OKLAHOMA, IN MARCH OF 1933. THE AGRICULTURAL AGENT THERE PREDICTED THAT, AT BEST, FARMERS MIGHT HARVEST 4 BUSHELS OF WINTER WHEAT PER ACRE, VERSUS THE PREVIOUS YIELDS OF NEARLY 30. AND NOW THE DUST STORMS WERE BECOMING MORE FREQUENT. INSTEAD OF THE 14 STORMS OF 1932 CLASSIFIED AS THE WORST, THERE WERE 38 IN 1933. ONE STORM IN APRIL LASTED 24 HOURS. Shirley Forester McKenzie: YOU COULD HARDLY AVOID LOOKING TO THE WEST TO SEE IF YOU COULD SEE THIS RIM OF DUST THAT WAS RISING ON THE HORIZON. IT WAS EARTH COLORED. WAY FAR AWAY, BEGINNING TO RISE, AND THE NEXT DAY, PERHAPS IT WOULD BE BIGGER AND COME QUICKER AND HIGHER, AND THEN SUDDENLY, YOU WERE JUST ENGULFED. IT WAS OVERHEAD, AND YOU COULDN'T SEE THE SUN. AND THAT'S WHEN IT WAS A REALLY BAD DAY. AND DAY AFTER DAY, IT WOULD BE THAT WAY-- DARK, BLACK, SCARY. Robertson: THE EXPERTS COULD TELL WHERE THE DUST CAME FROM BY THE COLOR. NEW MEXICO HAD ONE COLOR, AND OKLAHOMA, COMING FROM THE OTHER DIRECTION, HAD ANOTHER COLOR. AND THEY WOULD SAY, "WELL, WE'RE ENJOYING OKLAHOMA TODAY. "WELL, WE'RE GETTING VISITED BY ALL THE NEW MEXICANS TODAY,"AND SO FORTH. Worster: THE BIG DUST STORMS WERE FINE PARTICLES OF SOIL. OTHERS WERE SANDIER BLOWS THAT BLEW ALONG THE HIGHWAYS AT LOW ELEVATION, AND IT TOOK COULD TAKE THE PAINT OFF YOUR AUTOMOBILE OR YOUR HOUSE, LIKE SANDPAPER BEING RUBBED AGAINST IT. BUT THE ONES THAT WERE THE MOST TERRIFYING WERE THE ONES THAT WERE BASED ON THESE VERY FINE PARTICLES THAT ROSE UP INTO THE AIR 7,000, 8,000 FEET IN THIS KIND OF BOILING WALL OF DIRT COMING AT YOU WITH GALE FORCE, 40-, 50-, 60-MILE-AN-HOUR WINDS. THESE WERE THE BLACK BLIZZARDS THAT FRIGHTENED PEOPLE SO MUCH DURING THOSE PERIODS. Egan: WHEN ONE OF THESE DUSTERS WOULD APPROACH FROM AFAR AND THEY WOULD SEE IT FOR THE FIRST TIME, IT WAS LIKE A MOUNTAIN RANGE, BECAUSE SOME CASES, THE STORMS WERE 100 MILES, 150 MILES, 200 MILES WIDE AND A MILE OR MORE HIGH. SO IMAGINE DRIVING ON A FLAT LAND AND LOOKING OFF AND SEEING A MOUNTAIN RANGE ITSELF STARTING TO MOVE. DAYLIGHT ITSELF WOULD BE OBLITERATED. SOMEONE TOLD ME IT WAS LIKE "TWO MIDNIGHTS IN A JUG." Dorothy Kleffman: ONE PARTICULARLY BAD STORM WE HAD, IT WAS IN THE DAYTIME, AND IT ROLLED IN, AND IT WAS SO BLACK THAT YOU COULDN'T SEE YOUR HAND IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE. SO WE ALL GATHERED IN THE KITCHEN, THE WHOLE FAMILY. WE LIT THE KEROSENE LAMP, AND THAT DIDN'T HELP VERY MUCH. AND MOTHER HAD TEA TOWELS THAT WERE MADE OUT OF FLOUR SACKS BECAUSE WE WERE ALSO IN THE GREAT DEPRESSION. WE JUST TOOK THEM AND DRAPED THEM OVER OUR HEAD, DOWN THE FACE--YOU KNOW, JUST THE WHOLE HEAD. YOU COULDN'T SEE ANYTHING. YOU SAT THERE, AND YOU COULDN'T TALK OR VISIT WITH ANYBODY VERY MUCH, BUT THAT WET TOWEL WOULD CATCH THE DUST. AND SOMETIMES THOSE TOWELS WERE PRETTY BLACK BY THE TIME WE TOOK THEM OFF. Ina Kay Labrier: IT'D GET SO BAD, YOU COULDN'T EVEN SEE TO DRIVE. YOU COULDN'T SEE THE SIDES OF THE ROAD WITH YOUR LIGHTS ON. YOU COULDN'T TELL WHETHER YOU WAS ON THE ROAD OR ON THE SIDES OR WHERE YOU WERE. Glover: SOMETIMES WE WERE CAUGHT IN THE HOUSE OR IN THE CAR, AND WE'D JUST SAT THERE UNTIL IT ALL BLEW OVER. IT JUST WAS OLD BROWN DIRT A-BLOWIN' ALL AROUND THE CAR, AND WE JUST SAT THERE UNTIL IT KIND OF CLEARED UP ENOUGH SO YOU COULD SEE THE ROAD TO GO ON TO GET TO THE HOUSE. AND IT WAS GRITTY AND DIRTY, AND YOU HAD TO WASH YOUR MOUTH OFF WHENEVER YOU GOT IN THE HOUSE SO YOU WEREN'T EATING DIRT. IF YOU'D GO OUT AND PICK UP A HANDFUL OF DIRT AND STICK IT IN YOUR MOUTH, THAT'S JUST THE WAY IT'D FEEL. Egan: ONE OF THE THINGS THAT HAPPENED JUST BEFORE A DUSTER HIT WAS THERE WAS THIS AMAZING STATIC ELECTRICITY IN THE AIR. PEOPLE USED TO CARRY A CHAIN IN THEIR CAR TO GROUND THE ELECTRICITY. YOU DIDN'T DRIVE ANYWHERE WITHOUT HAVING THIS CHAIN THAT YOU'D THEN THROW OUT AND DRAG IT ALONG THE GROUND TO GROUND THE ELECTRICITY BECAUSE YOUR RADIO WOULD GO OUT, YOUR ELECTRICAL STUFF WOULD SHORT. AND EVERY PERSON WOULD TALK ABOUT HOW YOU LITERALLY COULDN'T SHAKE ANOTHER PERSON'S HAND BEFORE ONE OF THESE DUSTERS BECAUSE THE STATIC WAS SO STRONG. IT WAS THE KINETIC ENERGY THAT WAS IN THE AIR JUST BEFORE A DUSTER HIT. I CAN REMEMBER FEELING IT IN MY HAIR. IT WAS JUST KIND OF LIKE YOUR HEAD TINGLES OR SOMETHING, YOU KNOW. YOUR HAIR GETS KIND OF WIRY. Beck: MORE DUST AND THE LONGER THE RIDE, THE HIGHER THE CHARGE, UNTIL FINALLY IT'D GET SUCH A POWERFUL CHARGE THAT IF YOU REACH OUT TO TOUCH YOUR CAR, THE ELECTRICITY WILL JUMP OUT ABOUT 6 INCHES TO MEET YOU AND KNOCK YOU FLAT ON YOUR BUTT. BUT IT WASN'T ALWAYS LIKE THAT. DON'T FORGET, THIS IS A STORM, WHICH MEANS IT HAD A BEGINNING AND AN END. AND IN BETWEEN STORMS, COULDN'T HAVE BEEN MORE BEAUTIFUL. THE SKIES WERE CRYSTAL-BLUE, AND THE CLOUDS WERE THOSE PUFFY WHITE SUMMERTIME CLOUDS, WITHOUT A DROP OF WATER IN 50 OF THEM. BUT I CAN STILL REMEMBER MY FATHER LOOKING UP AT THE SKY AND PRAYING THAT IT'D RAIN. BUT NATURALLY, IT NEVER WOULD BECAUSE THOSE WEREN'T RAIN CLOUDS AND NEVER WOULD BE. Narrator: IN THE TIMES BETWEEN STORMS, THE FARMERS AND TOWNSPEOPLE TRIED THEIR BEST TO CARRY ON WITH THEIR LIVES, BUT THE LAND THEY CALLED HOME WAS BEING REARRANGED BEFORE THEIR VERY EYES. OH, JUST DIRT, PILES OF DIRT AROUND ANYTHING, LIKE THE FENCE ROWS OR SOMETHING LIKE A PLOW IMPLEMENT OR ANYTHING OUT IN THE YARD, IT MIGHT BE NEARLY COVERED UP WITH DIRT. ANYTHING LOOSE BANKED UP AROUND SOMETHING OR BLEW AWAY. Kleffman: IT WOULD DRIFT UP THE SIDE OF THE BARN. SO YOU COULD WALK UP ON THE ROOF OF THE BARN, YOU KNOW? YOU JUST WALK UP LIKE YOU HAD A LADDER THERE, BUT IT WOULD BE DIRT. Narrator: THE STORMS HAD PUSHED DRIED-UP RUSSIAN THISTLES-- TUMBLEWEEDS-- ACROSS THE OPEN GROUND BY THE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS. WHEREVER THEY PILED UP AGAINST BARBED WIRE FENCES, THEY CREATED EDDIES IN THE WIND, AND THE DIRT ACCUMULATED. THISTLES GOT IN THE FENCE, AND THEN THE SAND GOT IN THE THISTLES, SO CONSEQUENTLY, WHAT CATTLE WAS STILL ALIVE WALKED OVER THE FENCE. EVERY PLACE THERE WAS A FENCE, YOU COULD ALMOST WALK OVER MOST OF THEM. Narrator: WHERE THE DIRT AND SAND HADN'T PILED UP, THE LAND HAD BEEN SWEPT CLEAN OF TOPSOIL. Kleffman: IT WAS BARE. IT WAS HARD. YOU COULD TAKE A BROOM AND SWEEP IT JUST LIKE YOU COULD A WOOD FLOOR. IT WAS HARD, JUST LIKE CEMENT. Worster: SO YOU COULD WALK OUT ONTO YOUR FARM, AND INSTEAD OF FINE DIRT, YOU FOUND THIS HARDPAN LAYER ON THE TOP. IMPOSSIBLE TO CULTIVATE. YOUR DIRT WOULD BE IN SOMEBODY ELSE'S FARM OR A COUNTY AWAY. Glover: YOU KNOW, THE DUST WAS SO BAD THAT THE CATTLE DIED. THEY FOUND SMALL HERDS OF CATTLE THAT WERE JUST FILLED UP WITH DIRT IN THEIR LUNGS AND THEIR NOSES. I CAN REMEMBER SEEING OUR COWS' NOSES THAT WERE JUST MUD ON THE END WHERE THEY TRIED TO BREATHE AND COULDN'T. Worster: THEY DIED OF SUFFOCATION. WHATEVER WILDLIFE WAS OUT THERE DIED OF SUFFOCATION. BUT ANIMALS ALSO SIMPLY WANDERED AWAY NOT KNOWING WHERE THEY BELONGED AND WOULD CLIMB OVER THESE DUST DRIFTS AND BE LOST. SO IT WAS REALLY DEVASTATING FOR LIVESTOCK IN TERMS OF LOSS OF LIFE. Narrator: HOUSEWIVES NURTURED THEIR GARDENS WITH WELL WATER, BUT THE ABRASIVE WINDS, THE SHIFTING DIRT-- EVEN, SOMETIMES, THE CHARGE OF STATIC ELECTRICITY IN THE AIR-- OFTEN KILLED THE VEGETABLES THEIR FAMILIES WERE COUNTING ON. Virginia Frantz: A STORM WOULD COME, AND THERE WOULD BE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING LEFT OF IT. AND MOTHER TRIED HER BEST TO KEEP THAT FROM HAPPENING. SHE WOULD DIG POSTHOLES TO PLANT TOMATOES IN SO THAT THE WIND WOULDN'T CUT THEM OFF UNTIL THEY GOT BIGGER AND STRONGER TO WHERE THEY MIGHT HAVE SOME TOMATOES THEN. AND SHE DUG DEEP ROWS TO PUT ANYTHING IN. AND OF COURSE, SOMETIMES THEY WOULD FILL UP WITH DIRT. Narrator: AFTER SURVEYING THE RESIDENTS OF MEADE, KANSAS, A REPORTER CALCULATED THAT THE AVERAGE DAMAGE FROM A SINGLE STORM WAS $25 PER HOME. WHAT COULDN'T BE MEASURED, HE SAID, WAS "THE LOSS OF DISPOSITION OF THE HOUSEWIVES." Kleffman: MY MOTHER WAS VERY CLEAN. HER HOUSE WAS ALWAYS CLEAN, AND SHE TRIED TO KEEP US KIDS CLEAN. SHE WOULD TAKE ALL HER CURTAINS DOWN ONE DAY AND WASH THEM AND HANG THEM BACK UP. A DIRT STORM WOULD COME IN THAT NIGHT, AND THEY WERE JUST LIKE THEY WERE BEFORE SHE WASHED THEM. AND THAT WENT ON DAY AFTER DAY AFTER DAY, AND ONCE IN A WHILE, YOU WOULD HEAR OF SOME WOMAN THAT JUST COULDN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE, AND SHE'D COMMIT SUICIDE. Robertson: IT BLEW THAT DIRT INTO THE ATTIC OF THE HOUSE. A LOT OF TIMES WHEN WE WOULD GET UP OF A MORNING, YOU COULD LOOK UP AT THE CEILING AND IF THERE WAS A SPLIT OR BETWEEN BOARDS OR WHATEVER, THAT DIRT WOULD JUST BE COMING RIGHT DOWN LIKE THIS ON THE TABLE. AND WHEN WE'D GET UP IN THE MORNING, A LOT OF TIMES THERE WOULD BE, SAY, FROM AN INCH TO 5 INCHES OF DIRT JUST PILED LIKE THAT. AND YOU CLEANED THAT OFF, AND YOU EAT, AND YOU EAT THE DIRT IF IT'S THERE. IF IT ISN'T, WELL, YOU DO GOOD. Floyd Coen: WHEN WE SET THE TABLE, WE ALWAYS SET THE PLATE UPSIDE-DOWN-- GLASSES OR CUPS, WHATEVER IT WAS, UPSIDE-DOWN. AND STILL I THINK YOU'D TURN THEM OVER AND SHAKE THEM, LOOK AT THEM BEFORE YOU PUT ANYTHING IN THEM. MY FAMILY THINKS THAT I'M KIND OF STUPID, AND I GUESS I AM, BUT I STILL--IF I GET A GLASS OUT OF A CABINET, I RINSE IT OUT BEFORE I DRINK OUT OF IT. Kleffman: WHEN WE WOULD GO TO BED AT NIGHT, SOMETIMES A DUST STORM WOULD COME IN, AND WHEN WE GOT UP THE NEXT MORNING, OUR COVERS WOULD BE COMPLETELY COVERED WITH DUST, AND THE ONLY CLEAN PLACE ON OUR PILLOW WOULD BE WHERE OUR HEAD HAD LAID. Henderson portrayer: DUST TO EAT, AND DUST TO BREATHE, AND DUST TO DRINK. DUST IN THE BEDS AND IN THE FLOUR BIN, ON DISHES AND WALLS AND WINDOWS, IN HAIR AND EYES AND EARS AND TEETH AND THROATS, TO SAY NOTHING OF THE HEAPED-UP ACCUMULATION ON FLOORS AND WINDOW SILLS AFTER ONE OF THE BAD DAYS. THIS WIND-DRIVEN DUST, FINE AS THE FINEST FLOUR, PENETRATES WHEREVER AIR CAN GO. Narrator: AS IF THE WIND AND DUST WEREN'T ENOUGH TO DEAL WITH, HORDES OF JACKRABBITS, DRIVEN BY HUNGER, NOW INVADED WHAT PASTURES, CROPS, AND GARDENS WERE LEFT. Kleffman: THEY ATE EVERYTHING GREEN THERE WAS. THE FARMERS HAD KILLED OFF THE COYOTES, AND THAT UPSET THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS, AND THE RABBITS JUST EXPLODED, AND THEY WOULD EAT ANYTHING GREEN THEY FOUND, AND THEY WOULD EAT YOUR GARDEN UP. McCoy: THERE'D BE THOUSANDS OF RABBITS. THEY'D EAT EVERYTHING--EAT THE BARK OFF OF THE FENCE POSTS. DAD PUT NEW POSTS UP ON OUR PLACE WHEN HE'D DONE IT, AND IT WAS CEDAR POST THAT HAD BARK ON IT, AND THEY ATE THAT BARK OFF OF IT. Narrator: TO COMBAT THE INVASION, ENTIRE COMMUNITIES BEGAN ORGANIZING "RABBIT DRIVES." YOU'D ADVERTISE IT WITH FLYERS ALL OVER THE PLACE IN ADVANCE-- "ON SATURDAY AFTERNOON ON THE FARM OF JOE SMITH "WOULD BE A RABBIT DRIVE. PLEASE COME. BRING THE FAMILY." SO ON THAT AFTERNOON, THERE MIGHT BE 50 TO 100 FAMILIES SHOW UP. Wells: THE PEOPLE WOULD GO OUT IN A SEMI-CIRCLE AND THEN BRING THEM IN. AND THEY HAD CLUBS, AND THEY'D USE WAGON SPOKES FOR CLUBS. WHAT STARTED OUT AS A PEACEFUL PICNIC SORT OF TURNED INTO A RIOT-- DOGS BARKING AND YIPPING, PEOPLE YELLING, KIDS SCREAMING, RABBITS HOPPING IN THE AIR. AND THEY JUST--WE'D KILL THEM UNTIL WE JUST GIVE OUT. THEN MORE KIDS WOULD GET IN AND GO FIGHTING THEM. THEY'D KILL THEM BY THE THOUSANDS. Dale Coen: YOU'D CLUB THE RABBITS TO DEATH, WHICH WAS AN UNSIGHTLY THING, AND IT WAS A HORRIBLE THING TO DO. THEY WOULD SCREAM, AND I CAN STILL HEAR RABBITS, THE NOISE THEY'D MAKE. I WENT ON ONE, AND THAT WAS ENOUGH FOR ME. Narrator: IN THE EARLY SPRING OF 1934, A SNOWSTORM BLANKETED NO MAN'S LAND. THE FLAKES, MIXED WITH AIRBORNE DIRT, WERE DARKENED-- LOCALS CALLED IT A "SNUSTER"-- BUT AT LEAST IT WAS A LITTLE MOISTURE. IN THE TEXAS PANHANDLE, A LIGHT RAIN FELL. MANY PEOPLE THOUGHT THE DROUGHT HAD BROKEN. "THE GOOSE HANGS HIGH," A LOCAL NEWSPAPER REPORTED. "FARMERS ARE GOING DOWN THE FURROW WITH BRIGHTER DAYS IN SIGHT AND A SONG IN THEIR HEARTS." Robertson: AND I REMEMBER ONE TIME IT RAINED, AND WE WERE ALL JUST THRILLED, AND THE CHILDREN WENT OUT IN THE STREETS AND BAREFOOT AND DANCING IN THE RAIN AND LET THE RAIN FALL ON THEIR TONGUES. WE WERE JUST ECSTATIC, AND THE MOTHERS CALLED THAT IT WAS TIME TO COME IN FOR SUPPER, AND NOBODY WOULD GO IN. SO FINALLY THE NEIGHBORS ALL BROUGHT SUPPER TO THE FRONT PORCHES, AND WE HAD SUPPER ON THE FRONT PORCHES AND DANCING IN THE STREETS. IT WAS WONDERFUL. AND WE THOUGHT MAYBE THE TIDE HAD TURNED. BUT, YOU KNOW, AFTER THAT, HERE CAME THE DUST AGAIN. Narrator: 1934 WOULD TURN OUT TO BE EVEN DRIER AND HOTTER THAN THE YEARS BEFORE-- PART OF A NATIONWIDE DROUGHT THAT AFFECTED 46 OF THE 48 STATES. IN MAY, THE TEMPERATURE HAD ALREADY REACHED 100 DEGREES IN NORTH DAKOTA, WHERE THE DROUGHT WAS A YEAR OLDER. PARTS OF NEBRASKA, WHERE TEMPERATURES HIT 118, WERE ALREADY BLOWING. THEN, ON MAY 9th, A MASSIVE WEATHER FRONT MOVING EASTWARD BEGAN PICKING UP LOOSE SOIL FROM WYOMING AND MONTANA, THEN NEBRASKA AND THE DAKOTAS-- ULTIMATELY 350 MILLION TONS OF IT, LIFTED TENS OF THOUSANDS OF FEET IN THE AIR. CARRIED BY HIGH-LEVEL WINDS, IT CROSSED IOWA, MINNESOTA, AND WISCONSIN, AND AS IT PASSED OVER CHICAGO, IT DEPOSITED AN ESTIMATED 12 MILLION POUNDS OF DUST-- 4 POUNDS FOR EACH RESIDENT OF THE CITY. ON MAY 10th, IT DARKENED THE SKIES OVER DETROIT, CLEVELAND, AND BUFFALO. BY THE MORNING OF THE 11th, THE STORM ENVELOPED THE EASTERN SEABOARD FROM BOSTON TO SAVANNAH. IN NEW YORK CITY, STREET LIGHTS WERE TURNED ON AT MID-DAY, THE THICK HAZE OBSCURED TOURISTS' VIEWS OF CENTRAL PARK FROM THE TOP OF THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING, AND A SHIP DELAYED ITS ENTRY INTO THE HARBOR BECAUSE THE CAPTAIN HAD TROUBLE SEEING THE STATUE OF LIBERTY. IN WASHINGTON, DC, DUST DESCENDED ON THE NATIONAL MALL, EVEN SIFTED INTO THE WHITE HOUSE, WHERE PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT WAS HOLDING A PRESS CONFERENCE PROMISING RELIEF TO THE DROUGHT-STRICKEN GREAT PLAINS. THE NEXT DAY, SHIPS 300 MILES FROM THE COAST REPORTED DIRT FALLING ONTO THEIR DECKS. Worster: PEOPLE WERE SHOCKED IN THE EAST, AND THEY BEGAN, FOR THE FIRST TIME, TO ASK QUESTIONS-- WHAT IS HAPPENING OUT ON THE GREAT PLAINS? Narrator: THOUGH IT ORIGINATED ON THE NORTHERN PLAINS, EASTERNERS REFERRED TO IT ALL AS "KANSAS DUST," AND MANY OF THEM QUICKLY HAD SUGGESTIONS ABOUT HOW TO STOP IT FROM BLOWING ACROSS THE CONTINENT. ONE COMPANY PROPOSED COVERING THE PLAINS IN CONCRETE, WITH HOLES CAREFULLY PLACED FOR PLANTING SEEDS, WHILE A STEEL MANUFACTURER IN PITTSBURGH THOUGHT ITS WIRE NETTING MIGHT WORK BETTER. THE BARBER ASPHALT COMPANY OF NEW JERSEY ESTIMATED IT COULD SPREAD ITS PRODUCT OVER THE LAND FOR $5.00 AN ACRE. A WOMAN FROM NORTH CAROLINA SUGGESTED THAT SHIPPING JUNK AUTOS WEST WOULD SIMULTANEOUSLY BEAUTIFY HER STATE WHILE STOPPING THE WIND EROSION ON THE PLAINS. WELL, EASTERNERS IN PARTICULAR, OR ANYONE WHO DIDN'T LIVE ON THE GREAT PLAINS, HAD NO IDEA OF THE SCALE OF THIS PROBLEM OR HOW TO GO ABOUT SOLVING IT. SO THEIR FIRST IDEA WAS BASICALLY TO COVER THE GREAT PLAINS SOMEHOW, COVER THESE SOILS-- BRINGING ROCKS FROM THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, I GUESS ROLLING THEM DOWN THE MOUNTAINSIDE-- ANYTHING TO COVER THIS AREA. THEY HAD NO IDEA THAT THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT A HUNDRED MILLION ACRES. Narrator: PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT AND HIS SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE, HENRY WALLACE, HAD IDEAS OF THEIR OWN-- FROM ENCOURAGING FARMERS TO PLANT FEWER CROPS TO FINDING WAYS TO STABILIZE THE LOOSE SOILS THROUGH BETTER PLOWING TECHNIQUES-- BUT THOSE PROGRAMS WERE STILL IN THEIR INFANCY. NO ONE KNEW IF THEY WOULD WORK. DURING A STOP IN DROUGHT-RAVAGED NORTH DAKOTA THAT SUMMER, ROOSEVELT ADMITTED AS MUCH. "I WOULD NOT TRY TO FOOL YOU BY SAYING WE KNOW THE SOLUTION"TO THE CRISIS, THE PRESIDENT SAID. "WE DON'T. BUT WHAT I CAN TELL YOU "FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART IS THIS-- "IF IT IS POSSIBLE FOR US TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM, WE ARE GOING TO DO IT." SOME OF THE PEOPLE LINING THE ROUTE OF HIS MOTORCADE HELD UP SIGNS THAT NOTED HOW ROOSEVELT HAD ALREADY ENDED PROHIBITION. "YOU GAVE US BEER,"THE PLACARDS SAID. "NOW GIVE US WATER." ROOSEVELT ACKNOWLEDGED THEIR MESSAGE, AND RESPONDED, "THAT BEER PART WAS EASY." A SERIES OF RAINS FELL SHORTLY AFTER THE PRESIDENT'S VISIT AND HELPED EASE THE DROUGHT ON THE NORTHERN PLAINS. PEOPLE THERE CALLED IT "ROOSEVELT WEATHER." BUT FARTHER SOUTH, THERE WAS NO SUCH RELIEF. WHILE THE OUTLINES OF THE WORST-HIT AREA WOULD SHIFT OVER THE YEARS, SOMETIMES BROADENING OR NARROWING, BY THE SUMMER OF 1934, THE GOVERNMENT HAD OFFICIALLY IDENTIFIED THE GEOGRAPHIC HEART OF THE DUST CRISIS. IT WAS NEAR BOISE CITY IN CIMARRON COUNTY, THE WESTERN TIP OF OKLAHOMA-- IN NO MAN'S LAND. ONE THIRD OF THE COUNTY'S LAND WAS BLOWING. EVEN SOME PASTURES OF NATIVE BUFFALO GRASS THAT HAD NOT BEEN PLOWED HAD BEEN BURIED UNDER DRIFTS OF DIRT AND SAND, SOME 10 FEET HIGH. A FEW OF ROOSEVELT'S OTHER NEW DEAL PROGRAMS, AIMED AT EASING THE HUNGER AND JOBLESSNESS OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION, HAD NOW REACHED THE SOUTHERN PLAINS. IN CIMARRON COUNTY ALONE, NEEDY RESIDENTS RECEIVED 2 TONS OF SMOKED PORK, 16 TONS OF BEEF, 17 TONS OF FLOUR, AND 33 TONS OF COAL THROUGH A SURPLUS COMMODITIES PROGRAM. ONE QUARTER OF THE COUNTY'S POPULATION NOW DEPENDED ON NEW DEAL JOBS. BUT NONE OF THAT ADDRESSED THE MAIN CALAMITY. "WE ARE GETTING DEEPER AND DEEPER IN DUST," THE "BOISE CITY NEWS" REPORTED. THE SAME WAS TRUE IN ALL THE OTHER SURROUNDING COUNTIES IN TEXAS, NEW MEXICO, COLORADO, KANSAS, AND THE REST OF THE OKLAHOMA PANHANDLE. Worster: BY 1934, THE ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHE ON THE GREAT PLAINS WAS PRETTY CLEAR. IT WOULD HAVE, AT THAT POINT, CLASSIFIED AS ONE OF THE WORST ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTERS IN AMERICAN HISTORY ALREADY. Henderson portrayer: WE ARE TRYING TO HOPE THAT THE WORST IS OVER, YET TODAY, AFTER WE THOUGHT THE DROUGHT HAD BEEN EFFECTIVELY BROKEN, WE HAD ANOTHER TERRIBLE DAY OF VIOLENT WIND, DRIFTING CLOUDS OF DUST, AND RUSSIAN THISTLES RACING LIKE MAD ACROSS THE PLAINS AND PILING UP IN HEAD-HIGH IMPASSABLE BANKS. WE FEEL AS IF THE ADMINISTRATION IS REALLY MAKING A SINCERE EFFORT TO IMPROVE GENERAL CONDITIONS, BUT THEY HAVE A TREMENDOUS TASK, MADE HARDER, OF COURSE, BY ALL WHO CLING TENACIOUSLY TO SPECIAL PRIVILEGES OR OPPORTUNITIES OF THE PAST. Narrator: THAT SUMMER, FARMERS GATHERED AT THE PALACE THEATER IN BOISE CITY TO HEAR DETAILS ON A NEW GOVERNMENT PROGRAM DESIGNED TO STABILIZE BEEF PRICES BY REDUCING THE SURPLUS OF CATTLE ACROSS THE COUNTRY. IN THE GREAT PLAINS, IT WAS ALSO MEANT TO DEAL WITH THE PROBLEM OF ANIMALS WASTING AWAY FOR LACK OF ADEQUATE PASTURAGE. ALREADY, HOMESTEADERS LIKE CAROLINE AND WILL HENDERSON HAD RESORTED TO HARVESTING RUSSIAN THISTLES TO FEED THEIR COWS. SOME RANCHERS WERE GRINDING UP YUCCA CACTUS OR BURNING OFF THE NETTLES OF PRICKLY PEARS IN AN EFFORT TO GIVE THEIR CATTLE SOMETHING--ANYTHING--TO EAT. Robertson: DADDY SAID, "WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH MONEY "TO BUY FOOD FOR THE CATTLE, "BUT IF WE CAN CUT THISTLES AND STACK THEM, THERE'S MORE FOOD VALUE IN THAT THAN NEARLY ANYTHING." AND OUR JOB WAS TO TRAMP THOSE THISTLES DOWN. NOW, IF YOU WANT A BAD JOB, THAT'S ONE. THOSE THISTLES GET DOWN YOUR PANT LEGS INTO YOUR SHOES, THOSE LITTLE STICKERS, AND YOU CAN STAND IT ABOUT SO LONG, BUT PRETTY SOON YOU GOT TO STOP, GET OUT A STICKER. Narrator: TO ENCOURAGE FARMERS AND RANCHERS TO CULL THEIR HERDS, THE NEW GOVERNMENT PROGRAM WOULD PAY THEM UP TO $16 A HEAD FOR A COW HEALTHY ENOUGH TO BE SHIPPED TO A PACKING HOUSE, WHERE IT WOULD BE SLAUGHTERED AND CANNED FOR DISTRIBUTION TO THE POOR. CATTLE DEEMED UNFIT FOR CONSUMPTION WOULD BRING A MINIMUM OF $1.00 A HEAD BUT WOULD BE IMMEDIATELY KILLED AND BURIED. GOVERNMENT AGENTS FANNED OUT ACROSS NO MAN'S LAND TO MAKE THE PURCHASES, OVERSEE THE SHIPMENTS, AND WHERE NECESSARY, PAY MEN TO PUT THEIR HERDS UNDER THE DRIFTING SOIL. NATIONWIDE, THE PROGRAM WAS A SUCCESS. $111 MILLION WAS SPENT TO PURCHASE 8.3 MILLION CATTLE, AND PRICES WERE STABILIZED. IN CIMARRON COUNTY, THE GOVERNMENT PURCHASED 12,499 HEAD OF CATTLE IN 1934, PAYING $164,449 IN MUCH-NEEDED CASH TO LOCAL RANCHERS. DESPERATE AS THEY WERE FOR SOME INCOME, IT WAS A BITTER PILL FOR MANY TO SWALLOW, HARDER STILL ON THEIR CHILDREN. WHAT THEY DID WAS, THEY TOOK A BULLDOZER AND MADE A MAMMOTH DITCH, A MAMMOTH DITCH, AND DROVE ALL THE CATTLE DOWN IN THERE. THEN THERE WERE MEN ABOVE WITH RIFLES, I WOULD SAY MAYBE 10 OR 20 MEN WITH RIFLES, AND THEY SHOT THE CATTLE. MY FATHER, WHEN OUR CATTLE WAS DRIVEN INTO THIS DITCH TO BE SHOT, HE SAID, "THERE'S A LITTLE CALF. CAN I BUTCHER THAT CALF FOR FOOD FOR US?" THEY SAID, "NO. THEY ALL HAVE TO BE DESTROYED." I'LL NEVER FORGET TO MY DYING DAY STANDING THERE AS A LITTLE BOY, I WAS PROBABLY 8 OR 9 YEARS OLD, WHEN THEY STARTED SHOOTING THOSE CATTLE. AND IT'S A SIGHT TO THIS DAY THAT, THE AVERAGE PERSON COULDN'T STAND IT, BUT AS A LITTLE KID, IT WAS VERY ROUGH BECAUSE THAT WAS OUR STOCK. AND YOU GOT SOME MONEY FOR IT. BUT THAT DIDN'T MATTER. THEY KILLED THE STOCK. Robertson: AND THEY SAID, "IF YOU CAN GET COWBOYS "TO GET THOSE CATTLE TOGETHER, WE'LL JUST RUSH THEM, "AND THEY'LL FALL IN THAT DITCH, AND THEN WE'LL KILL THEM AND COVER THEM UP." AND...AND DADDY COULD HARDLY... [CHOKING UP] I'M SORRY. BUT HE COULD HARDLY DO THAT. AND I NEVER WILL FORGET MY BROTHER AND I STANDING THERE AND WATCHING THEM SHOOT THOSE LITTLE CALVES, AND WE COULD HARDLY STAND IT. BUT THAT'S WHAT THEY DID. Riney-Kehrberg: ANYBODY WHO HAD LIVED ON THE SOUTHERN PLAINS FOR ANY LENGTH OF TIME KNEW THAT THERE WERE PERIODIC DROUGHTS, KNEW THAT THE WIND BLEW IN THE SPRING, KNEW THAT THERE WERE GOING TO BE DUST STORMS. WHAT'S DIFFERENT ABOUT THE 1930s IS HOW LONG THE DROUGHT LASTS. THEY WERE ALWAYS BATTLING AGAINST HOPE BECAUSE YOU WOULD SEE THAT MAYBE THERE WAS SOME RAIN ON THE HORIZON, BUT IT WOULD FALL ON SOMEBODY ELSE'S FIELD AND NOT YOURS. YOU WOULD SEE SOME CLOUDS GATHER, AND YOU WOULD HOPE THAT THIS WAS GOING TO BE GOOD NEWS, BUT INSTEAD IT WAS GOING TO BE DIRT. HOPE KEPT THEM GOING, BUT HOPE ALSO MEANT THAT THEY WERE BEING CONSTANTLY DISAPPOINTED. Brown: MY DAD COULD TELL IF IT WAS GONNA BE A REALLY BAD DAY BY LOOKING OUT THE BACK DOOR AT THE SUNRISE, AND IF THE SUN WAS RED, HE'D SAY, "OH, IT'S GONNA BE A BAD DAY." THAT DISCOURAGED ME EVEN WHEN I WAS LITTLE IF I HEARD HIM SAY THAT. Narrator: BY 1934, PROPERTY VALUES AROUND BOISE CITY HAD DECLINED BY 90%, AND MORE THAN HALF OF THE LANDOWNERS WERE DELINQUENT ON THEIR TAXES. EACH WEEK, THE LOCAL PAPER CARRIED NOTICES OF UPCOMING SHERIFF'S SALES OF FARMS BEING PUT ON THE AUCTION BLOCK BECAUSE OF UNPAID MORTGAGES. EVERY FAMILY, EVERY FARM, EVERY BUSINESS WAS AFFECTED. THE TELEPHONE COMPANY THAT HAD OPENED IN THE RURAL PART OF NO MAN'S LAND WENT UNDER. THE PALACE THEATER SHUT ITS DOORS-- UNTIL ENOUGH PEOPLE PERSUADED THE OWNER TO REOPEN. THEY NEEDED MOVIES TO HELP THEM TAKE THEIR MINDS OFF THEIR TROUBLES. NO ONE KNEW WHAT THE NEXT CALAMITY WOULD BE OR WHEN THE HARD TIMES MIGHT END. WHEN HE LOST YET ANOTHER CROP TO THE DROUGHT, PAULINE HODGES' FATHER FOUND HIMSELF HARD UP AGAINST HIS MORTGAGE. Hodges: I THINK HE MUST HAVE BEEN SCARED TO DEATH BECAUSE HE HAD RELATIVE LITTLE EDUCATION. FARMING WAS ALL HE KNEW HOW TO DO, ALL HE'D EVER DONE, AND TO LOOK OUT AND SEE THAT FIELD SOLID DUST, MOUNDS OF DUST. HE'D SAY, "OH, DORA, IT'S GOING TO GET BETTER. IT'LL GET BETTER." AND HE WOULD TALK ABOUT HIS BANKER IN LIBERAL, AND HE'D SAY, "OH, MR. IGO IS GOING TO LET US CONTINUE FOR A LITTLE WHILE LONGER." HE KEEPS SAYING, "OH, PAUL, IT WON'T GET ANY WORSE." HE CARRIED US FOR PROBABLY 3 YEARS BEYOND WHEN HE SHOULD HAVE, KEEPING THE HOPE THAT WE WERE GOING TO GET RAIN AND TIMES WERE GONNA GET BETTER AND IF WE JUST HAD A CROP, WE COULD PAY OFF THAT MORTGAGE. FINALLY, THE BANK WAS DESPERATE, AND IN THE WINTER OF '34-'35, THEY FORECLOSED. Narrator: THEY MOVED INTO A VACANT 3-ROOM HOUSE IN TOWN, AND HER FATHER MANAGED TO FIND A GOVERNMENT JOB BUILDING ROADS THAT HELPED KEEP THE FAMILY FED. Hodges: HE MADE $3.00 A DAY TO START WITH, AND WHEN HE BECAME FOREMAN, HE MADE $5.00. BUT EVEN AS YOUNG AS I WAS, I REMEMBER SEEING THE CHANGE IN HIM FROM THE SELF-CONFIDENT PERSON THAT HE'D BEEN TO SOMEBODY WHO WAS REALLY DEFEATED. AND FRANKLY, HE NEVER RECOVERED. Narrator: OVER IN FOLLETT, TEXAS, TRIXIE TRAVIS BROWN'S FATHER AND GRANDFATHER WERE TRYING TO HOLD ON TO THEIR HARDWARE BUSINESS. AMONG THOSE HAVING TROUBLE PAYING THEIR BILLS WERE A PAIR OF BROTHERS, VALUED CUSTOMERS AND FRIENDS. Brown: THE TWO OF THEM CAME IN TO THE HARDWARE STORE AND TALKED TO GRANDPA AND SAID, "I DON'T KNOW WHAT WE'RE GOING TO DO. "WE'RE WIPED OUT, AND WE CANNOT PAY THIS BILL THAT WE OWE YOU RIGHT NOW." AND GRANDPA COULD SEE HOW DESPERATE THEY WERE, AND HE SAID, "DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT. "WE'LL CARRY THIS. YOU'LL BE JUST FINE. WE'LL GET OUR MONEY." AND IT WAS NO TIME BEFORE THE TRAGEDY HAPPENED. ONE OF THEM, HE HAD A FAMILY WITH CHILDREN WHO WERE IN SCHOOL WITH ME. HE HANGED HIMSELF AT HOME. THIS SORT OF AGONY WAS GOING ON. Narrator: SOON ENOUGH, TRIXIE'S FATHER AND GRANDFA COULDN'T PAY THEIR DEBTS, EITHER. Brown: THE HARDWARE STORE WENT BANKRUPT. WE LOST IT, AND THE BANK TOOK THE HOUSE. AND THE BANK FORECLOSED ON GRANDPA TRAVIS, AND HE LOST HIS CATTLE, HE LOST HIS SECTION OF LAND, HE LOST HIS HOME, AND HE LOST HIS HEALTH. Narrator: IN BAZINE, KANSAS, A DOCTOR TOOK HIS OWN LIFE. "HE TOLD US JUST A FEW DAYS AGO THAT MONEY WAS AN IMPOSSIBILITY NOW," THE LOCAL PAPER REPORTED, "AND THE LETTERS INDICATE THAT FINANCIAL TROUBLES ARE THE CAUSE OF HIS ACT." IN DODGE CITY, A 13-YEAR-OLD BOY, SAID TO BE WORRIED THAT HIS PARENTS COULDN'T AFFORD HIS SCHOOL BOOKS, COMMITTED SUICIDE. DEVASTATED BY HIS INVESTMENT LOSSES, A CIMARRON COUNTY DOCTOR KILLED HIS WIFE AND THEN HIMSELF. IN BOISE CITY, MILLARD FOWLER WAS FRESH OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL AND READY TO BUILD A FUTURE. HE HAD FALLEN IN LOVE WITH THE DAUGHTER OF A MAN WHO UNTIL RECENTLY HAD BEEN ONE OF THE AREA'S MOST PROMINENT BUSINESSMEN. FOWLER AND HIS SWEETHEART DECIDED TO GET MARRIED, BUT FIRST HE WANTED TO GET HER FATHER'S BLESSING. FOWLER FOUND HIS FUTURE FATHER-IN-LAW SITTING IN HIS CAR IN FRONT OF THE FAMILY HOME. Millard Fowler: WHEN I OPENED THE DOOR, I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT HE WAS UP TO. I KNEW HE WAS IN THE CAR, BUT I DIDN'T KNOW WHY. BUT WHEN I OPENED THE DOOR, I SAW THAT RIFLE, POINTING AT HIS HEAD. I OPENED THE DOOR AND GOT IN THE SEAT BESIDE HIM AND... AND TOOK THAT RIFLE AND UNLOADED IT... WITHOUT ANY CONVERSATION, AS I REMEMBER. BUT I FINALLY GOT AROUND AND ASK HIM IF IT'D BE ALL RIGHT IF WE GOT MARRIED, AND HE FINALLY SAID YES. A COUPLE OF MONTHS LATER, HE COMMITTED SUICIDE. Narrator: IN 1935, THE NUMBER OF "BLACK BLIZZARDS"DOUBLED AROUND NO MAN'S LAND, AND MANY OF THEM STRUCK IN THE FIRST 4 MONTHS. IN THAT TIME, 7 DIFFERENT STORMS REDUCED VISIBILITY TO ZERO IN AMARILLO. DODGE CITY, KANSAS, REPORTED ONLY 13 DUST-FREE DAYS. ONE SINGLE STORM DESTROYED A QUARTER OF THE WHEAT CROP IN OKLAHOMA, HALF OF THE KANSAS CROP, AND ALL OF NEBRASKA'S. IT BLEW OUT 5 MILLION ACRES OF FIELDS, AND IN THE SPACE OF A DAY, CARRIED OFF TWICE AS MUCH DIRT AS HAD BEEN EXCAVATED BY THE UNITED STATES IN THE DECADE IT TOOK TO DIG THE PANAMA CANAL. Worster: THIS WAS MORE FRIGHTENING THAN WINTER SNOW BLIZZARDS BECAUSE IT WAS SO UNPRECEDENTED AND IT SEEMED SO CHOKING. IT WAS IN THAT SENSE LIKE A WINTER BLIZZARD WHERE THEY TIED, YOU KNOW, ROPES FROM THE HOUSE TO THE BARN TO MAKE YOUR WAY BACK AND FORTH. BUT PEOPLE WEREN'T PREPARED FOR THIS KIND OF BLIZZARD, BLACK BLIZZARD. THEY DIDN'T THINK ABOUT IT IN THE SAME TERMS AT FIRST. THEY THOUGHT, "WELL, THIS IS NOT SOMETHING THAT'S GONNA KILL ME." BUT IT DID. I MEAN, IT CHOKED PEOPLE. PEOPLE DIED IN DUST DRIFTS. Narrator: DURING A "BLACK BLIZZARD"IN FEBRUARY, A FARMER'S CAR WENT OFF THE ROAD TWO MILES FROM HIS HOME, AND HE GOT OUT TO WALK THE REST OF THE WAY. HE NEVER MADE IT. IN MARCH, A 7-YEAR-OLD BOY NEAR HAYS, KANSAS, GOT CAUGHT ALONE IN A STORM. SEARCHERS FOUND HIM THE NEXT MORNING, SUFFOCATED, SMOTHERED IN DIRT. FARTHER WEST, A 9-YEAR-OLD WANDERED OFF ALONE IN THE SAME STORM. WHEN HE WAS DISCOVERED, HE WAS TANGLED IN BARBED WIRE BUT STILL BREATHING. THE TRAIN FROM KANSAS CITY TO DALHART, TEXAS, WAS FORCED TO STOP WHEN ITS PASSENGERS COMPLAINED THEY WERE CHOKING. IT PAUSED LONG ENOUGH TO LET THE DUST SETTLE, WHILE PEOPLE SCOOPED OUT THE DIRT ON THE FLOORS AND SEATS. IN GARDEN CITY, KANSAS, THE LOCAL HARDWARE STORE SOLD OUT OF GOGGLES. THEN THE TRAIN DELIVERING A NEW SUPPLY WAS DELAYED-- BY A DUST STORM. WRITING FROM GREAT BEND, KANSAS, A JOURNALIST SAID, "LADY GODIVA COULD RIDE THROUGH THE STREETS WITHOUT EVEN THE HORSE SEEING HER." THAT SPRING, A WAVE OF ILLNESSES SWEPT ACROSS THE SOUTHERN PLAINS, WITH SYMPTOMS OF COUGHING SPELLS AND HIGH TEMPERATURES, NAUSEA, CHEST PAINS, AND SHORTNESS OF BREATH. PEOPLE CALLED IT "DUST PNEUMONIA." THE SOIL THEY HAD TURNED OVER DURING THE GREAT PLOW UP HAD ALREADY KILLED THE SODBUSTERS' CROPS AND LIVESTOCK. NOW IT SEEMED TO HAVE ZEROED IN ON SOMETHING MUCH MORE PRECIOUS--THEIR CHILDREN. Lorene White: THERE WERE TIMES WHEN IT WAS HARD TO BREATHE BECAUSE OF THE DUST. WE WORE LITTLE THINGS, LITTLE STRIPS OF SHEET, SOMETIMES OVER OUR NOSE AND MOUTH SO WE WOULDN'T BREATHE SO MUCH OF IT. I'M SURE MOM AND DAD WERE CONCERNED ABOUT WHAT IT WOULD DO TO US. YOU DIDN'T KNOW. EACH PARTICLE OF SOIL IS ABOUT A TENTH OF THE SIZE OF A PERIOD AT THE END OF A SENTENCE IN A BOOK-- BARELY VISIBLE TO THE HUMAN EYE. AND THAT'S JUST SMALL ENOUGH OF A PARTICLE TO GET INTO THE LUNGS. Frantz: ANYTIME YOU TOOK A BREATH, YOU HAD DIRT. IF YOU WERE COUGHING, AND... I CALL IT GUNK. IF YOU COUGHED A BUNCH OF GUNK UP, THE GUNK YOU'D COUGHED UP WAS MUD. Hodges: THERE WERE DAYS WHEN MY MOTHER PUT A DUST MASK OVER MY FACE TO KEEP ME FROM CHOKING AND GASPING. AND IT FRIGHTENED ME, AT LEAST AT FIRST. AS I REMEMBER, I GOT OVER THAT AND I THOUGHT IT WAS UNCOMFORTABLE AND I HATED IT, BUT IT WAS BETTER THAN COUGHING AND CHOKING ALL THE TIME. YOU JUST COULDN'T GET A GOOD BREATH AFTER THEY WAS ON A WHILE. IT'D BE SOAKED UP, AND THE DIRT ON THE OUTSIDE OF THEM... WHAT I HEARD MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE, "FLOYD, PUT YOUR MASK BACK ON." I HATED TO WEAR THEM. I COULD GET A BETTER BREATH WITHOUT IT THAN I COULD WITH IT, I THOUGHT. Narrator: THE RED CROSS ISSUED A CALL FOR 10,000 MORE MASKS. IT WASN'T NEARLY ENOUGH. MORE PEOPLE GOT SICK. YOU DIDN'T GO TO THE DOCTOR BECAUSE HE WAS 60 MILES AWAY, AND SO THE FOLKS DOCTORED US THEMSELVES. AND SO I WAS DOCTORED WITH KEROSENE AND LARD AND TURPENTINE THAT WAS RUBBED ON YOUR CHEST. AND FOR COUGH SYRUP, YOU HAD SUGAR WITH A DROP OR TWO OF KEROSENE IN IT. THAT WAS YOUR COUGH SYRUP. White: MY TEMPERATURE GOT REAL HIGH, AND THEY KNEW THAT IT WAS PROBABLY PNEUMONIA. THERE WAS NO DOCTOR NEAR US. BUT I KEPT GETTING WORSE, AND IT WAS HARD FOR ME TO BREATHE WITH THE DUST. Narrator: IN SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS, LORENE WHITE'S PARENTS DECIDED THEIR ONLY HOPE WAS TO MOVE THEIR DAUGHTER TO RELATIVES FARTHER EAST, AWAY FROM THE EVER-PRESENT DUST. HER MOTHER WOULD GO WITH HER, BUT HER FATHER NEEDED TO STAY AND TRY TO MANAGE THE FARM. White: THE DAY THEY CAME TO GET ME, THE DUST WAS TERRIBLE. YOU COULD HARDLY SEE TO DRIVE. AND I REMEMBER DAD WRAPPED ME IN A BLANKET... AND HE CARRIED ME TO THE CAR. HE TOLD ME THAT WHEN HE CARRIED ME TO THE CAR, HE THOUGHT HE WOULD NEVER SEE ME ALIVE AGAIN. BUT FROM THEN, I DON'T REMEMBER ANYTHING. Narrator: AT HER RELATIVES' HOME, HER TEMPERATURE FINALLY WENT DOWN, BUT HER COUGHING WOULDN'T STOP. DOCTORS SAVED HER WITH AN OPERATION THAT DRAINED THE FLUID IN HER INFLAMED LUNGS. White: AND ONE DAY, I WAS LYING ON THE COUCH, AND I LOOKED INTO THE KITCHEN, AND THE DOOR WAS SWINGING OPEN, AND YOU KNOW THERE'S A LITTLE CRACK THAT YOU CAN SEE THROUGH. AND I WAS LOOKING, AND I SAW MY DAD. NO WORDS CAN TELL YOU HOW TICKLED I WAS TO SEE MY DAD. Narrator: BACK IN NO MAN'S LAND, THE RED CROSS DECLARED A MEDICAL CRISIS. EMERGENCY HOSPITAL WARDS WERE OPENED WHEREVER SPACE COULD BE FOUND, INCLUDING THE BASEMENTS OF TWO CHURCHES IN GUYMON, OKLAHOMA. OVER IN BACA COUNTY, COLORADO, THE HIGH SCHOOL'S SENIOR PLAY WAS CANCELLED BECAUSE COTS NOW COVERED THE GYM FLOOR. Floyd Coen: WITHIN A TWO-WEEK PERIOD, THERE WERE 3 LITTLE GIRLS DIED OF DUST PNEUMONIA. IT WAS CLOSE ENOUGH WE COULD SAY THEY WAS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD. TWO OF THEM WAS OVER IN OKLAHOMA, AND ONE OF THEM WAS IN KANSAS. BUT THERE WAS-- THERE WAS QUITE A FEW. IT SEEMED TO GET ABOUT THAT AGE, YOU KNOW, JUST BEFORE THEY WENT TO SCHOOL OR A LITTLE YOUNGER. Narrator: BY 1935, EDGAR AND RENA COEN HAD 8 CHILDREN. 6 YEARS EARLIER, COEN HAD STARTED BUILDING A PROPER HOME FOR HIS FAMILY, BUT BECAUSE OF THE DEPRESSION, CONSTRUCTION HAD ENDED AT THE BASEMENT. THEY COVERED IT WITH A SHEET IRON ROOF AND MOVED IN. IT WAS LARGER THAN THEIR OLD HOME-- SPACE FOR TWO BEDROOMS AND A LARGE ROOM THAT SERVED AS A KITCHEN, DINING ROOM, AND LIVING ROOM-- BUT IT WAS STILL UNDERGROUND. IN 1932, TWINS HAD ARRIVED-- RALPH AND RENA MARIE, THEIR ONLY DAUGHTER, WHO QUICKLY BECAME THE FAMILY FAVORITE. Dale Coen: RENA MARIE WAS OUR ONLY SISTER. SHE WAS SO PRECIOUS TO US BECAUSE THE FOLKS HAD BEEN TRYING FOR A GIRL ALL THE TIME. IT ALWAYS COME OUT BOYS. SHE WAS FRAIL, BUT SHE WAS A PRETTY LITTLE GIRL. Floyd Coen: SHE WAS JUST THE SWEETEST LITTLE THING THAT YOU'D EVER SEEN. SHE WAS SMALLER THAN RALPH, AND SHE WAS ALWAYS JUST BUSY DOING THINGS, JUST ALL THE TIME. SHE WAS JUST A JOY FOR ALL OF US. AT NIGHT, SINCE MAMA HAD A LOT OF WORK TO DO WITH 7 BOYS AND WASHING ON THE BOARD AND STUFF, SHE NEEDED HER REST, SO RENA MARIE WOULD SLEEP CLOSE TO ME. AND I'M GLAD I WAS ABLE TO DO IT. I SPENT AN AWFUL LOT OF TIME WITH HER. Narrator: THAT SPRING, 4 OF THE COEN CHILDREN GOT SICK-- FLOYD, RICHARD, AND THE 2-1/2-YEAR-OLD TWINS. ONE NIGHT, RENA MARIE'S TEMPERATURE SKYROCKETED. Dale Coen: WE WERE SITTING AT THE TABLE EATING, AND SHE JUST IMMEDIATELY WAS BATHED IN WATER. SHE JUST SWEAT-- HER HEAD JUST WAS... WATER RUNNING OFF HER FACE AND HEAD. Narrator: SHE BECAME TOO WEAK TO BE MOVED FROM THE BED IN THE PARENTS' ROOM. THE DOCTOR WAS SENT FOR AND USHERED IN TO SEE HER. Dale Coen: WE WAS ALL AWAKE, ALL SETTING AROUND THE FIRE. I REMEMBER I WAS SETTING IN BEHIND THE STOVE, BETWEEN THE STOVE AND THE WALL-- PLENTY OF ROOM THERE-- AND SHE WAS CRYING, CALLING FOR ME TO COME TO HER. SHE CALLED FOR ME--NOT MAMA, NOT DAD, BUT FOR DALE. AND I...I HAVEN'T REALLY EVER GOT OVER IT. IT WAS BAD, BAD, BAD. Floyd Coen: DR. MEREDITH WAS THERE, AND HE KNEW SHE WAS PASSING AWAY. 4 OF US HAD DUST PNEUMONIA AT THAT TIME. I AND RALPH AND RICHARD WAS IN BED ALSO. THE HARDEST PART WAS WE WAS IN BED OUT IN THE FRONT ROOM, AND WHEN I HEARD THE DOCTOR SAY, "DO YOU HAVE A BOARD?" AND MY DAD SAID, "WELL, WE HAVE LEAVES FOR THE TABLE." AND HE TOOK THE LEAF TO THE TABLE AND TOOK IT IN THERE AND PUT HER LITTLE BODY ON THAT LEAF AND BROUGHT IT OUT AND SHOWED US BOYS BEFORE HE TOOK HER. AND THE DOCTOR PUT HER IN THE REAR SEAT OF HIS CAR AND TOOK HER INTO THE MORTUARY. BUT THAT WAS THE HARDEST THING ON ME... AND STILL IS. SHE WAS SUCH A PERFECT LITTLE THING. Narrator: TWO WEEKS LATER, THE COENS' FIRST GRANDCHILD, VERLE'S SON DWAYNE, DIED AT AGE 5 WEEKS. HE AND RENA MARIE WOULD BE TWO OF THE 31 PEOPLE WHO PERISHED FROM DUST PNEUMONIA THAT SPRING IN MORTON COUNTY, POPULATION 4,092. THE TOWN OF LIBERAL LOST 9 TO THE ILLNESS. IN THE 7 SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS COUNTIES, NEARLY 1,500 PEOPLE BECAME SICK WITH IT. SOME BEGAN TO BLAME THEMSELVES FOR WHAT WAS HAPPENING. ON ITS FRONT PAGE, THE "BOISE CITY NEWS"PUBLISHED A QUOTATION FROM THE BIBLE, THE BOOK OF EZEKIEL-- "BEHOLD, THEREFORE, I HAVE SMITTEN MY HAND "AT THY DISHONEST GAIN ICH THOU HMADE, AND AT THY BLOOD WHICH HAS BEEN IN THE MIDST OF THEE." McCoy: SOME PEOPLE LEFT ON ACCOUNT OF THAT, THINKING GOD WANTED THEM TO LEAVE. AFTER THEY HAD THE DUST STORM WHERE THE PEOPLE IN BOISE CITY COULD SEE THE IMAGE OF CHRIST INTO IT, PEOPLE THOUGHT THAT CHRIST WAS CAUSING THIS. THERE WAS JUST LOTS OF TALK THAT GOD WAS TORMENTING US BECAUSE THEY PLOWED UP THAT GOOD SOD. Egan: YOU NEVER REALLY ESCAPED THE DUST. IT ALWAYS FOUND ITS WAY IN, AND THAT'S, I THINK, WHAT DROVE PEOPLE CRAZY. ONE WOMAN TOLD ME IT WAS LIKE A SNAKE. SHE COULD HEAR IT SLITHERING ALONG THE CEILING AND THEN ALONG THE SIDE OF THE WALL. SHE SAID SHE JUST WAITED FOR THAT SNAKE TO STRIKE FROM ANY PLACE. SHE KNEW IT WAS ALWAYS THERE. IT WAS THAT KIND OF A PSYCHOLOGICAL BLOW. WHEN YOU THOUGHT THAT IT WAS AT LAST BEHIND YOU, THIS MONSTER CAME ALONG AND JUST CLOBBERED YOU. Woman: "IT SEEMED THAT "THE BLACK DUST WAS ALWAYS WITH US. "IF A QUIET DAY HAPPENED TO BE OUR LOT, "THE TIME WAS SPENT SCOOPING OUT "THE SAND OF THE STORM OF YESTERDAY. "IT SEEMED THAT WE LIVED IN A LAND OF HAZE. "THE ATMOSPHERE SEEMED TO ALWAYS BE CLOSING IN AROUND US, CREATING AN EERIE AND UNEASY FEELING." HAZEL LUCAS SHAW. MOM SAID SHE HAD EVERY CRACK STUFFED WITH RAGS, AND SHE WOULD WET THEM DOWN. SHE'D HANG SHEETS OVER EVERYTHING WHERE DUST MIGHT COME IN, BUT IT DIDN'T KEEP IT OUT. IT WOULD COME IN SOMEWHERE. Narrator: IN EARLY APRIL OF 1935, THE SHAWS OF BOISE CITY, OWNERS OF THE LOCAL MORTUARY, BEGAN PLANNING A DOUBLE FUNERAL. THEY HAD JUST LOST THE OLDEST AND YOUNGEST MEMBERS OF THEIR OWN FAMILY TO THE DUST PNEUMONIA. HAZEL'S BEAUTIFUL, PRECOCIOUS YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER RUTH NELL HAD DIED JUST A FEW HOURS BEFORE HAZEL'S GRANDMOTHER, THE MATRIARCH OF THE CLAN, HAD PASSED AWAY. "GRANDMA LOU"WAS TO BE BURIED IN TEXHOMA, NEAR HER HOMESTEAD, WHILE RUTH NELL WAS TO BE TAKEN TO ENID, IN THE CENTRAL PART OF OKLAHOMA. THE MAIN REASON FOR THAT WAS THE FACT THAT ENID CEMETERY WAS VISIBLE. THEY WOULD HAVE BURIED RUTH NELL IN THE BOISE CITY CEMETERY EXCEPT YOU COULDN'T EVEN FIND THE TOMBSTONES, THE HEADSTONES IN THE CEMETERY, IT WAS SO DRIFTED FULL OF DIRT. Narrator: ON APRIL 14th, 1935, THE DAY OF THE DOUBLE FUNERAL ARRIVED. IT WAS PALM SUNDAY, A WEEK BEFORE EASTER. AND THEY WERE EXCITED WHEN THEY GOT UP THAT DAY BECAUSE IT WAS A DAY WHEN IT WAS CLEAR. A PRETTY DAY. AND IF YOU'VE GOT TO DO A JOB LIKE THAT, YOU KNOW, THAT'S A BLESSING TO YOUR HEART IF YOU HAVE A NICE DAY FOR A FUNERAL FOR A LOVED ONE. Narrator: THROUGHOUT THE AREA AROUND NO MAN'S LAND THAT MORNING, AS MANY FAMILIES PREPARED FOR CHURCH, RESIDENTS WERE BEING GREETED BY A GLORIOUS BREAK IN THE WEATHER. Egan: THE SUNDAY ITSELF WAS SO GORGEOUS AND WINDLESS, AND PEOPLE CAME OUT OF THEIR DUGOUTS AND CLEANED THEIR SHEETS AND OPENED UP THEIR WINDOWS. IT WAS LIKE A DAWN. IT WAS LIKE A NEW DAY, AND YOU THOUGHT, "MY GOD, THIS LAND CAN MAKE US WHOLE AGAIN. MY GOD, THE WORST IS OVER." Narrator: IN FOLLETT, TEXAS, TRIXIE TRAVIS BROWN'S MOTHER HUNG LAUNDRY OUT ON THE LINE, FLUNG OPEN THE WINDOWS OF HER HOUSE TO LET IN THE FRESH AIR, AND ANNOUNCED THAT THE FAMILY WOULD ENJOY THE REST OF THE DAY OUT IN THE COUNTRY. THE SKY WAS BLUE. THERE WASN'T A BREATH OF WIND. WE WERE JUST EXHILARATED, THE WHOLE FAMILY, AND WE COULDN'T UNDERSTAND IT, EITHER, BECAUSE IT JUST WAS SO ABNORMAL. MOTHER AND DAD DECIDED WE WOULD TAKE A PICNIC, AND WE WENT DOWN ON WOLF CREEK. Narrator: BY MID-DAY, THE TEMPERATURE HAD RISEN INTO THE HIGH 70s. BUT FARTHER NORTH, A COLD FRONT SWEEPING DOWN FROM CANADA HAD BEGUN MOVING SOUTH AND EAST ACROSS THE GREAT PLAINS, PUSHING A WIND BEFORE IT, PICKING UP MORE AND MORE LOOSE SOIL WITH EACH MILE IT TRAVELED. DENVER, ON THE FRONT'S WESTERN EDGE, WAS COVERED BY A HAZE, AND TEMPERATURES DROPPED 25 DEGREES IN AN HOUR'S TIME. A LITTLE LATER, IT REACHED UNION COUNTY, IN THE NORTHEASTERN CORNER OF NEW MEXICO, WHERE SAM ARGUELLO AND HIS FAMILY LIVED. Sam Arguello: I WAS PLAYING OUT IN THE FRONT YARD. IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL DAY, BEAUTIFUL SUNNY DAY. ALL OF A SUDDEN, I LOOKED UP, AND THERE WAS A BIG BLACK, BLACK CLOUD COMING IN FROM UP ON THE NORTHEAST. WE WERE RIGHT AT THE TURN OF A CANYON, DEEP CANYON, I'D SAY PROBABLY 60 FOOT DEEP FROM THE TOP DOWN TO THE BOTTOM--OR MORE THAN THAT. AND WHEN THAT THING CAME OVER, I RUN INTO THE HOUSE AND I TOLD THEM, I SAYS, "THERE'S A BIG BLACK CLOUD COMING OUT THERE." EVERYBODY SAYS, "THERE'S NO CLOUDS OUT THERE." IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL SUNNY DAY. BY THE TIME THEY GOT TO THE DOOR, IT WAS JUST BLACK. EVERYTHING WAS BLACK. YOU COULDN'T SEE ANYTHING. Narrator: THE RESIDENTS AROUND NO MAN'S LAND ALREADY HAD 4 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE WITH DUST STORMS OF ALL KINDS, BUT TO A PERSON, THIS ONE SEEMED DIFFERENT-- BIGGER, BLACKER, MORE SINISTER. Robertson: WE SAW THIS CLOUD COMING IN. IT WOULD JUST ROLL IN-- BLACK, BLACK DIRT. AND I'LL NEVER FORGET, MY GRANDMOTHER, SHE WAS PRETTY MUCH CHRISTIAN, AND SHE SAID, "YOU KIDS RUN AND GET TOGETHER. THE END OF THE WORLD IS COMING." AND BOY, WE--THAT WAS LAW AND GOSPEL BECAUSE GRANDMA SAID SO. AND WE ALL GOT TOGETHER, YOU KNOW, AND WE WERE SCARED TO DEATH. AND THAT CLOUD JUST ROLLED LIKE THAT, JUST KEPT COMING, AND IT JUST GOT DARK AS COULD BE. Wayne Lewis: WE SAT THERE AND WATCHED IT. I REMEMBER THE THING ROLLING, THAT IT... IT WAS LIKE A TORNADO THAT WAS ON ITS SIDE. Wells: ALL THE BIRDS, EVERYTHING WAS FLYING SOUTH. WE COULD SEE THIS THING ROLLING IN. MY BROTHER TOLD ME HE THOUGHT THE END OF THE WORLD WAS COMING. OF COURSE, THAT SCARED ME HALF TO DEATH, AND I WASN'T SO SURE ABOUT IT. Narrator: BY NOW, IT WAS EVEN BIGGER THAN THE MONSTROUS "BLACK BLIZZARD"OF 1934, AND AS IT MOVED SOUTH AND EAST ACROSS THE OPEN FIELDS OF KANSAS, OKLAHOMA, AND TEXAS, IT GOT BIGGER STILL. IT WAS 200 MILES WIDE, MOVING AT 65 MILES PER HOUR, AND IT BEGAN CATCHING MORE AND MORE PEOPLE OUT IN THE OPEN. TRIXIE TRAVIS BROWN'S FAMILY WAS AT WOLF CREEK, IN THE MIDST OF THEIR PICNIC, 20 MILES FROM HOME. Brown: WE NOTICED WHAT LOOKED LIKE RAIN CLOUDS FORMING IN THE NORTH. RAIN CLOUDS HAVE A BLUE CAST TO THEM, A NAVY BLUE CAST, AND THERE WAS NO BLUE IN THIS ONE. IT WAS BLACK. WE ALL GOT INTO THE CAR VERY QUICKLY. DAD AND MOM WET ANYTHING THAT WAS IN THE CAR-- SHIRTS, TOWELS, HANDKERCHIEFS-- PUT EVERYTHING AROUND ALL OF OUR FACES. AND WHEN IT HIT, THE CAR JUST DID A JIGGLE FROM SIDE TO SIDE. I DON'T REMEMBER ANY SOUND FROM ANY PEOPLE. BUT IT WAS BLACK. IT WAS TOTALLY BLACK. Narrator: IN GUYMON, OKLAHOMA, THE PARENTS OF BOOTS McCOY HAD DROPPED HIM AND HIS SISTER, RUBY PAULINE, OFF FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL, PROMISING TO PICK THEM UP WHEN SERVICES WERE OVER. THEN THE STORM HIT. McCoy: THEY FINALLY STOPPED THE CHURCH BECAUSE IT WAS GETTING SO BAD. PEOPLE WAS GETTING UP AND LEAVING ANYWAY. THE PASTOR EXCUSED EVERYBODY WITH A PRAYER, AND AS WE WENT THERE, THEY HAD A RAIL. I CAN REMEMBER HOLDING THAT RAIL AND HOLDING RUBY'S-- SHE WAS--SHE WAS MORE SCARED THAN I WAS. SO I JUST TOOK SISTER, AND WE STARTED OFF. Narrator: THROUGH THE DARKNESS, THEY STRUGGLED TO MAKE THEIR WAY HOME THROUGH BACK ALLEYS AND NEIGHBORS' YARDS, RELYING ON MEMORY MORE THAN EYESIGHT. THEY FINALLY MADE IT HOME, BUT THE HOUSE WAS EMPTY. THEIR PARENTS WERE FRANTICALLY SEARCHING FOR THEM OUTSIDE THE CHURCH AND ALONG THE MAIN STREETS. McCoy: THEN THE FOLKS CAME, AND IT WAS SO DARK IN THE HOUSE THAT THEY COULDN'T SEE US. MOM WAS CRYING AND HOLLERED THAT WE WEREN'T HOME AND SHE WAS WANTING TO GO BACK TO SEE IF THEY COULD FIND US. I HOLLERED AND SAID "WE'RE HOME,"YOU KNOW, AND IT RELIEVED THEM QUITE A LOT. THEN WE ALL JUST--JUST SAT, AND MOM JUST CRIED. WE HAD TO HUG MOM A LOT TO GET HER TO HUSH. Shaw: THEY HAD JUST COMPLETED THE FUNERAL. THEY HAD TAKEN RUTH NELL BACK ACROSS THE STREET FROM ST. PAUL'S METHODIST CHURCH TO THE FUNERAL HOME, AND THEY HAD JUST SENT THE FUNERAL PROCESSION WITH GRANDMA LOU OFF TOWARDS TEXHOMA. THEY GOT ABOUT... A LITTLE BIT MORE THAN 6 MILES OUT OF BOISE CITY WHEN THE FUNERAL PROCESSION SAW THE BLACK DUSTER BEHIND THEM. Narrator: HAZEL LUCAS SHAW AND HER HUSBAND HAD NOT ACCOMPANIED THE CARAVAN OF CARS HEADED FOR GRANDMA LOU'S GRAVESIDE SERVICE. THEY HAD REMAINED BEHIND, NOT WANTING TO LEAVE THE BODY OF RUTH NELL. THEIR YOUNG NIECE, CAROL, HAD BEEN TOLD TO STAY WITH THEM. MY COUSIN HAD BEEN WITH DAD AND MOM, AND SHE'D GONE OUTSIDE THE HOUSE, AND SHE SAW THE BLACK DUSTER COMING. SHE WAS JUST A LITTLE TYKE IN THE GRADES, I DON'T KNOW, PROBABLY 6, 7 YEARS OLD. SO SHE HEADED FOR HOME, WHICH WAS ABOUT 5 OR 6 BLOCKS AWAY. BY THE TIME THE DUSTER HIT, DAD DISCOVERED THAT SHE WAS GONE. HE HOPED THAT SHE HAD GOTTEN HOME ALL RIGHT, BUT WHEN ONE OF THOSE BLACK DUSTERS HIT, THE STATIC ELECTRICITY WAS SO TERRIBLE THAT YOU COULDN'T MAKE A TELEPHONE CALL. THERE WASN'T SUCH A THING AS RINGING UP YOUR BROTHER AND ASKING IF THEIR CHILD HAD GOTTEN HOME ALL RIGHT. SO DAD GOT HIS FLASHLIGHT. HE GOT DOWN ON HIS STOMACH, AND HE ELBOWED HIS WAY UNDERNEATH THE DUST. THE VISIBILITY WAS SLIGHT. YOU COULD SEE A LITTLE BIT UNDERNEATH THE DUST. SO HE ELBOWED HIS WAY THOSE 5 BLOCKS TO HIS BROTHER'S HOUSE. FORTUNATELY, CAROL WAS THERE, AND SHE HAD ARRIVED HOME SAFELY. BUT DAD DIDN'T WANT TO WORRY MOM, SO HE CRAWLED ON HIS STOMACH THE 5 BLOCKS BACK TO THE FUNERAL HOME. IN THE MEANTIME, THE FUNERAL PROCESSION THAT HAD STARTED TO TEXHOMA TURNED AROUND AND RETURNED. IN ORDER TO FIND A ROAD BACK, THERE WERE 4 MEN IN WHITE SHIRTS THAT HELD HANDS AND STRETCHED THEMSELVES ACROSS THE WIDTH OF THE ROAD, AND THE LEAD CAR GOT RIGHT BEHIND THEM. TOOK THEM A NUMBER OF HOURS TO GET BACK THAT WAY THE 6 OR SO MILES THEY HAD TO WALK BACK. THAT'S AS FAST AS THE PROCESSION CAME BACK. I THINK THEY GOT BACK ABOUT 10:00 THAT NIGHT. Narrator: APRIL 14, 1935, CAME TO BE CALLED "BLACK SUNDAY," AND NO ONE WHO LIVED THROUGH IT WOULD EVER FORGET THE STORM'S SIZE OR FEROCITY-- OR WHAT THEY DID TO SURVIVE IT. AFTER HUDDLING IN THEIR PARKED CAR WHILE THE BLACKNESS ENGULFED THEM, TRIXIE BROWN'S FAMILY INCHED THEIR WAY HOME. Brown: WE COULDN'T GET INTO THE HOUSE. THE DUST AND DIRT WAS SO HIGH THAT WE COULDN'T OPEN THE SCREEN DOOR. SO DAD HAD TO GO TO THE GARAGE TO GET A SHOVEL, AND HE HAD TO SHOVEL THE DIRT AWAY FROM THE SCREEN DOOR BEFORE WE COULD GET IN. WE HAD LEFT THE HOUSE OPEN BECAUSE MOTHER SAID, "WE'LL AIR OUT THINGS." SO THE HOUSE WAS TOTALLY LOADED WITH DIRT. Arguello: BY SUNDOWN, BECAUSE THIS HAPPENED ABOUT 1:30 WHEN THAT THING CAME OFF THE TOP OF THAT CANYON, AND BY SUNDOWN, IT HAD GONE PAST AND IT WAS JUST AS RED AS IT COULD BE TO THE WEST, YOU KNOW, WHERE THE SUN WAS HITTING IT. BUT IT WAS JUST RED ALL OVER. MY GRANDMOTHER SCARED THE TAR OUT OF ME. I WENT OUT THERE, AND I SAID, "WHAT IS THAT, ALL THAT RED OUT THERE, COMING ON THE WEST SIDE?" SHE SAID, "IT'S FIRE, FIRE. THE WORLD'S COMING TO AN END." AND I WENT AND CRAWLED UNDER THE BED. McCoy: THEY WERE TOUGH TIMES-- REALLY, REALLY TOUGH TIMES. DEATHLY SCARY, YOU KNOW. AN EERIE, EERIE TIME FOR OLDER PEOPLE AND US KIDS, YOU KNOW. WE DIDN'T KNOW WHAT THE DEVIL WAS GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT. Narrator: WITHIN A MONTH, BOTH BOOTS McCOY AND HIS SISTER RUBY PAULINE WOULD COME DOWN WITH DUST PNEUMONIA. HE WOULD SUFFER LUNG AILMENTS THE REST OF HIS LIFE. SHE DIED BEFORE SUMMER ARRIVED. McCoy: SHE WAS MY BEST BUDDY. YEAH. WE WENT THROUGH THEM HARD TIMES TOGETHER, YOU KNOW? Narrator: "AT LEAST," HER MOTHER SAID, "SHE WON'T HAVE TO LIVE THROUGH ANOTHER DUST STORM." BY CHANCE, A REPORTER FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NAMED ROBERT GEIGER HAD BEEN IN NO MAN'S LAND ON BLACK SUNDAY AND MANAGED TO FIND SHELTER IN BOISE CITY DURING THE WORST OF THE STORM. THE STORY GEIGER FILED THE NEXT DAY BEGAN, "THREE LITTLE WORDS-- "ACHINGLY FAMILIAR ON A WESTERN FARMER'S TONGUE-- "RULE LIFE TODAY IN THE DUST BOWL OF THE CONTINENT-- IF IT RAINS..." BUT INSTEAD OF FOCUSING ON THOSE 3 LITTLE WORDS, "IF IT RAINS," MORE PEOPLE FASTENED ONTO THE 3 WORDS HE HAD USED TO DESCRIBE THE PLACE THAT RAIN HAD FORSAKEN: "THE DUST BOWL." IT WAS THE FIRST TIME ANYONE HAD USED THAT TERM. Riney-Kehrberg: BLACK SUNDAY IS THE DIRT STORM THAT EVERYBODY REMEMBERED. IT WAS SO MUCH DARKER, SO MUCH MORE INTENSE, SO MUCH SCARIER THAN MOST OF THE OTHERS HAD BEEN. AND I DON'T THINK THAT IT'S REALLY ANY COINCIDENCE THAT THE OUTWARD MIGRATION OF THOSE WHO WERE GOING TO GO CAME AFTER BLACK SUNDAY. Narrator: IN THE MONTHS TO COME, DUST STORMS WOULD CONTINUE TO WREAK HAVOC ACROSS THE SOUTHERN PLAINS, WHILE THE PRESIDENT AND HIS ADMINISTRATION WOULD STRUGGLE TO COME UP WITH NEW STRATEGIES TO MEET THE CRISIS. IN THE HEART OF THE DUST BOWL, MANY FAMILIES WOULD DESPERATELY TRY TO HANG ON, BUT SOME WOULD RELUCTANTLY DECIDE TO LEAVE THEIR HOMES BEHIND AND TRY TO BEGIN A NEW LIFE SOMEWHERE ELSE. AMONG THEM WOULD BE A 22-YEAR-OLD ITINERANT SONGWRITER WHO HAD FOUND REFUGE FROM THE FURY OF BLACK SUNDAY IN A SMALL HOUSE WITH HIS FAMILY AND FRIENDS IN PAMPA, TEXAS, JUST SOUTH OF NO MAN'S LAND. HIS NAME WAS WOODY GUTHRIE. Woody Guthrie: WE WATCHED THE DUST STORM COME UP, LIKE THE RED SEA CLOSING IN ON THE ISRAEL CHILDREN, AND I'M TELLING YOU, IT GOT SO BLACK WHEN THAT THING HIT, WE ALL RUN INTO THE HOUSE. AND A LOT OF THE PEOPLE IN THE CROWD THAT WAS RELIGIOUS-MINDED AND THEY WAS UP PRETTY WELL ON THEIR SCRIPTURES, AND THEY SAID, "WELL, BOYS, GIRLS, FRIENDS, AND RELATIVES, "THIS IS THE END. THIS IS THE END OF THE WORLD." AND EVERYBODY JUST SAID, "WELL, SO LONG. IT'S BEEN GOOD TO KNOW YOU." I MADE UP A LITTLE SONG. ♫SO LONG, IT'S BEEN GOOD TO KNOW YA♫ ♫SO LONG, BEEN GOOD TO KNOW YA♫ ♫SO LONG, IT'S BEEN GOOD TO KNOW YA♫ ♫THIS DUSTY OLD DUST IS A-BLOWIN' ME HOME♫ ♫I'VE GOT TO BE ROLLIN' ALONG♫ ♫I'LL SING THIS SONG, BUT I'LL SING IT AGAIN♫ ♫OF THE PLACE THAT I LIVED ON THE WEST TEXAS PLAINS♫ ♫IN THE CITY OF PAMPA IN THE COUNTY OF GRAY♫ ♫HERE'S WHAT ALL OF THE PEOPLE THERE SAY♫ ♫WELL, IT'S SO LONG, BEEN GOOD TO KNOW YA♫ ♫SO LONG, IT'S BEEN GOOD TO KNOW YA♫ ♫SO LONG...♫ Announcer: NEXT TIME ON "THE DUST BOWL"... Man: GRASSHOPPERS MOSTLY WERE CRAWLING. Announcer: A NEW PLAGUE DESCENDS ON THE SOUTHERN PLAINS. Man: THEY ATE EVERYTHING IN SIGHT. Announcer: SOME FAMILIES PULL UP STAKES AND MOVE ON. WE HAD NOTHING LEFT. THERE WAS NO REASON TO STAY. Announcer: AND A PRESIDENT MUST DECIDE IF THE PLAINS CAN BE SAVED. Man: "MR. PRESIDENT, LET'S JUST GET OUT." Franklin Roosevelt: UNLESS IMMEDIATE STEPS ARE TAKEN, WE SHALL HAVE ON OUR HANDS A NEW MANMADE SAHARA. Narrator: DON'T MISS THE CONCLUSION OF "THE DUST BOWL" Esperanza Spalding: ONE TREMENDOUS THING ABOUT PBS IS THAT IT MAKES ART ACCESSIBLE BY PUTTING IT ON A PLATFORM WHERE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE CAN ACCESS IT FOR FREE. AND WE NEED IT. WE NEED MUSIC. WE NEED DANCE. WE NEED GREAT THEATER. FOR OUR SOUL. FOR JOY IN OUR LIVES. A LOT OF PEOPLE FLIP ON PBS AND HEAR OR SEE SOMETHING THAT WAKES UP THAT INTEGRAL PART OF BEING A HUMAN BEING WHICH IS ENJOYING THE ARTS OF OTHER HUMAN BEINGS. SO I'M GRATEFUL FOR PBS AS AN ARTIST AND AS A VIEWER. Announcer: TO LEARN MORE ABOUT "THE DUST BOWL," WATCH WEB-EXCLUSIVE VIDEOS, EXPLORE OUR PHOTO GALLERY, AND GO BEHIND THE SCENES WITH THE PRODUCERS OF THE FILM, VISIT US ONLINE AT PBS.ORG/DUSTBOWL. THE DUST BOWL IS AVAILABLE ON DVD OR BLU-RAY. THE COMPANION BOOK IS ALSO AVAILABLE. TO ORDER, VISIT SHOPPBS.ORG OR CALL 1-800-PLAYPBS. ALSO AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD FROM iTUNES. ♫...IT'S BEEN GOOD TO KNOW YA♫ ♫SO LONG, IT'S BEEN GOOD TO KNOW YA♫ ♫SO LONG, IT'S BEEN GOOD TO KNOW YA♫ ♫THIS DUSTY OLD DUST IS A-ROLLIN' ME HOME♫ ♫GOT TO BE DRIFTIN' ALONG♫ nouncer: FUNDING FOR THIS PROGRAM IS PROVIDED BY: MEMBERS OF THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY, DEDICATED TO HELPING KEN BURNS TELL AMERICA'S STORIES, INCLUDING THE DANA A. HAMEL FAMILY CHARITABLE TRUST, AND ROBERT AND BEVERLY GRAPPONE; THE ARTHUR VINING DAVIS FOUNDATIONS, DEDICATED TO STRENGTHENING AMERICA'S FUTURE THROUGH EDUCATION; THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES, EXPLORING THE HUMAN ENDEAVOR; THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION; THE WALLACE GENETIC FOUNDATION; THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING AND BY CONTRIBUTIONS TO YOUR PBS STATION FROM VIEWERS LIKE YOU. THANK YOU.

ANNOUNCER: MAJOR SUPPORT FOR "THE VIETNAM WAR" WAS PROVIDED BY MEMBERS OF THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY, INCLUDING JONATHAN AND JEANNIE LAVINE, DIANE AND HAL BRIERLEY, AMY AND DAVID ABRAMS, JOHN AND CATHERINE DEBS, THE FULLERTON FAMILY CHARITABLE FUND, THE MONTRONE FAMILY, LYNDA AND STEWART RESNICK, THE PERRY AND DONNA GOLKIN FAMILY FOUNDATION, THE LYNCH FOUNDATION, THE ROGER AND ROSEMARY ENRICO FOUNDATION, AND BY THESE ADDITIONAL FUNDERS. MAJOR FUNDING WAS ALSO PROVIDED BY DAVID H. KOCH... THE BLAVATNIK FAMILY FOUNDATION... THE PARK FOUNDATION, THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES, THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS, THE JOHN S. AND JAMES L. KNIGHT FOUNDATION, THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION, THE ARTHUR VINING DAVIS FOUNDATIONS, THE FORD FOUNDATION JUSTFILMS, BY THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING, AND BY VIEWERS LIKE YOU. THANK YOU. Announcer: Can looking back push us forward? Man: Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Billie Holiday. ♪ Will our voice be heard through time? Can our past inspire our future? ...act of concern... ♪ Bank of America supports filmmakers like Ken Burns, whose narratives illuminate new perspectives. What would you like the power to do? Bank of America. (helicopter blades beating, growing louder) (helicopter blades stop beating) (wind whipping, bullet whizzing) (gunfire) (explosion) (helicopter blades beating, indistinct voices) (gunfire, distorted screaming) (distorted Marine Corps Hymn playing) (electronic hum) (Marine Corps Hymn playing, crowd cheering) KARL MARLANTES: Coming home from Vietnam was close to as traumatic as the war itself. For years, nobody talked about Vietnam. (gunfire) (marching band playing) We were friends with a young couple and it was only after 12 years that the two wives were talking. Found out that we both had been Marines in Vietnam. Never said a word about it. Never mentioned it. And the whole country was like that. It was so divisive. And it's like living in a family with an alcoholic father. (whispering): "Shh, we don't talk about that." (gunfire) Our country did that with Vietnam. It's only been very recently that, I think, that, you know, the baby boomers are finally starting to say, "What happened? What happened?" ("A Familiar Taste" by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross playing) HENRY KISSINGER: What we need now in this country is to heal the wounds and to put Vietnam behind us. ("A Familiar Taste" continues) RICHARD NIXON: The killing in this tragic war must stop. ("A Familiar Taste" continues) LYNDON JOHNSON: General Westmoreland's strategy is producing results. The enemy is no longer closer to victory. ("A Familiar Taste" continues) ROBERT McNAMARA: No matter how you measure it, we're better off than we thought we would be at this time. REPORTER: You have been less than candid as to how deeply we are involved in Vietnam. We have increased our assistance to the government, its logistics. We have not sent combat troops there. DWIGHT EISENHOWER: You have a row of dominoes set up and you knock over the first one and the last one, certainly it will go over. HARRY TRUMAN: If aggression is successful in Korea, we can expect it to spread throughout Asia and Europe and to this hemisphere. ("A Familiar Taste" continues) ("A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" by Bob Dylan playing) ♪ Oh where have you been, my blue-eyed son? ♪ ♪ And where have you been, my darling young one? ♪ MAX CLELAND: Viktor Frankl, who survived the death camps in World War II, wrote a book called Man's Search for Meaning. DYLAN: ♪ I've walked and I've crawled on six... ♪ CLELAND: You know, "To live is to suffer. To survive is to find meaning in suffering." And for those of us who suffered because of Vietnam, that's been our quest ever since. DYLAN: ♪ And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard ♪ ♪ It's a hard ♪ ♪ It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall ♪ NARRATOR: America's involvement in Vietnam began in secrecy. It ended, 30 years later, in failure, witnessed by the entire world. DYLAN: ♪ And what did you see, my darling young one? ♪ NARRATOR: It was begun in good faith by decent people out of fateful misunderstandings, American overconfidence, and Cold War miscalculation. And it was prolonged because it seemed easier to muddle through than admit that it had been caused by tragic decisions, made by five American presidents, belonging to both political parties. DYLAN: ♪ I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleeding ♪ NARRATOR: Before the war was over, more than 58,000 Americans would be dead. At least 250,000 South Vietnamese troops died in the conflict, as well. So did over a million North Vietnamese soldiers and Viet Cong guerrillas. DYLAN: ♪ Sharp swords in the hands of young children ♪ ♪ And it's a hard... ♪ NARRATOR: Two million civilians, north and south, are thought to have perished, as well as tens of thousands more in the neighboring states of Laos and Cambodia. (helicopter blades whirring) For many Vietnamese, it was a brutal civil war; for others, the bloody climactic chapter in a century-old struggle for independence. DYLAN: ♪ And what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son? ♪ NARRATOR: For those Americans who fought in it, and for those who fought against it back home, as well as for those who merely glimpsed it on the nightly news, the Vietnam War was a decade of agony, the most divisive period since the Civil War. Vietnam seemed to call everything into question-- the value of honor and gallantry; the qualities of cruelty and mercy; the candor of the American government; and what it means to be a patriot. DYLAN: ♪ Where hunger is ugly, where the souls are forgotten ♪ NARRATOR: And those who lived through it have never been able to erase its memory, have never stopped arguing about what really happened, why everything went so badly wrong, who was to blame, and whether it was all worth it. BAO NINH: DYLAN: ♪ And it's a hard ♪ ♪ It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall ♪ (song ends) (Silk Road Ensemble playing "People and Fighters Unite") BAO NINH: NARRATOR: The French conquest of Indochina began with an attack on the ancient Vietnamese port of Danang in 1858. It took 50 years to lay claim to the whole region-- Laos and Cambodia, as well as the 1,200-mile-long area that would come to be called Vietnam. All of it was ruled by a French governor-general from his palace in Hanoi. The French largely lived on plantation estates, and in cities, like Saigon, made to look as much as possible like those at home. Most did not even bother to learn the language spoken by their subjects. Instead they installed a series of puppet emperors and employed a network of French-speaking Vietnamese officials-- mandarins-- willing to carry out their wishes. The French put their subjects to work building roads and canals, railroads and bridges. BAO NINH: NARRATOR: The Vietnamese people did not take easily to French occupation, just as they had fought against earlier invasions by the Chinese. By the early 20th century, nationalism was on the rise. But anyone who dared resist colonial rule risked exile, prison, or the guillotine. TRAN NGOC TOAN (speaking English): LAM QUANG THI: (helicopter blades whirring) JOHN MUSGRAVE: My hatred for them was pure. Pure. I hated them so much. And I was so scared of them. (gunfire) Boy, I was terrified of them. And the scareder I got, the more I hated them. I was an 18-year-old Marine rifleman with the ink still wet on my high school diploma. I didn't want to shame myself in front of my buddies. But I was so scared. I felt like I was hanging onto my honor by my fingernails the whole time I was there. ("La Marseillaise" playing) (crowd cheering) NARRATOR: In the spring of 1919, as the victorious Allied Powers met in Paris to rebuild a world shattered by the Great War, President Woodrow Wilson headed the American delegation housed in the Hotel Crillon. One day, a tall, slender, 29-nine-year-old man appeared with a petition for the president he and other Vietnamese nationalists had written. Inspired by Wilson's declaration that the interests of colonial peoples should be given equal weight with those of their European rulers, the man was asking that this principle be applied to his homeland. The president's secretary promised to show it to Wilson, but there is no evidence that he ever did. His name was Nguyen Tat Thanh, but he was now living under an alias, Nguyen Ai Quoc-- "Nguyen the Patriot." During his long, shadowy career, he would adopt some 70 different pseudonyms, finally settling on "the most enlightened one"-- Ho Chi Minh. DUONG VAN MAI: Ho Chi Minh was a man who succeeded in projecting an image of somebody who was totally dedicated to freeing his country and his people from foreign domination to the point that he sacrificed his own well-being, his own life, not having a family of his own. To Vietnamese, that's a big sacrifice because to us everybody needs a family. NARRATOR: Ho Chi Minh was born in 1890, the son of a minor official in the French regime. After taking part in a demonstration against the puppet emperor and the Frenchmen who pulled his strings, Ho was expelled from school and marked for arrest. He left Vietnam in 1911 and remained in exile for 30 years. He served as a cook's helper aboard a French liner, and visited New York and Boston, where he worked for a time as a pastry chef at the Parker House. He shoveled snow in London, tinted photographs in Paris. There, Ho Chi Minh joined the French Socialist Party. But when he discovered the anti-colonial writings of Lenin, he became a communist. He was invited to Moscow to study, underwent training as a Soviet agent, was sometimes criticized for being a nationalist first, a communist second, and then was dispatched to China to organize a cell of other Vietnamese exiles and help establish the Indochinese Communist Party. Through it all, "He was taut and quivering," a friend remembered, "with only one thought-- his country, Vietnam." (air raid siren blaring) (bombs whistling, exploding) (shouting) (gunfire, explosions) NARRATOR: By 1940, much of the world was at war again. Germany had seized most of Western Europe, including France. Imperial Japan threatened many of the European colonies in Asia, and occupied Vietnam, where they permitted their allies, the collaborationist French, to continue to oversee their colony. To some Vietnamese, the coming of the Japanese seemed to signal a welcome end to white colonial rule. But Ho Chi Minh, still in exile in China, saw the Japanese as alien invaders, no more welcome than the French. They were only interested in exploiting his country and seizing Vietnamese crops to fill their own rice bowls. The time had come, he said, to rally "patriots of all ages and all types, peasants, workers, merchants and soldiers" to defeat the Japanese and the collaborationist French. In February of 1941, after three decades away from his homeland, Ho Chi Minh slipped back across the Chinese border into Vietnam and set up headquarters near the remote village of Pac Bo in a limestone cave at the side of a mountain he named for Karl Marx, overlooking a jungle stream he named for his hero, Lenin. There, he founded a revolutionary movement, which he called the Vietnam Independence League-- the Viet Minh. TRAN NGOC TOAN (speaking English): NARRATOR: To build and lead a fighting force for his revolution, Ho called upon Vo Nguyen Giap, a one-time teacher of French history who had instructed the children of Hanoi's elite. Giap was an early convert to communism, whose life-long hatred for the French intensified when they beat his wife to death in prison. Inspired by Napoleon, Lawrence of Arabia, and the communist Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong, Giap had already begun to develop a distinctive theory of warfare that relied on guerrilla tactics until a full-scale conventional attack could be mounted. In the fight for independence which he believed was coming, his armies, Giap said, would be "everywhere and nowhere." DUONG VAN MAI: The reason Vietnamese had always resort to guerrilla warfare was because we were a small country. And it was just a way of fight the weak against the strong. Don't fight unless you're sure you can win, and surprise is a big element. Choose your own battle. MIKE HEANEY: I had about 26 guys that day out of 45. We were always somewhat understrength. And this day we were quite understrength. My platoon's on point. MAN: Go, go, go, go, go! HEANEY: And all of a sudden the very point man, the first guy in the column, said, "VC on the trail. VC on the trail." Before I had a chance to digest this... (gunshot) ...he went down, shot right through the chest. (gunfire) And what was a very well-laid ambush erupted. (explosion, gunfire) (gunfire, shouting) I knew I'd lost a bunch of guys. I said a prayer to God saying, basically, "If you need any more guys from my platoon, take me. Don't take any more of my men." As soon as I said it, I freaked myself out and said, Can I take that prayer back?" (gunfire, plane engine roaring) (explosion, alarm ringing) NARRATOR: By the spring of 1945, more than three years after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States government was looking for allies behind the lines in Vietnam. The Americans were hoping to find a way to undermine Japanese forces there when they were contacted by Ho Chi Minh. DONALD GREGG: And so it was decided to drop an OSS team in to meet with the Viet Minh leadership. Paul Hoagland was the medic on the team. And the first thing he was told was that he must attend to their leader, who was desperately sick. So he was taken to a grass shack where a bewhiskered, skinny man lay on a bundle of straw, desperately ill. And that was Ho Chi Minh. NARRATOR: The OSS, the secret wartime precursor of the CIA, supplied Ho's ragtag guerrillas with arms and marveled at how quickly they learned to handle them. Ho Chi Minh began to call his followers the "Viet-American Army," and praised the United States as a "champion of democracy" that would surely help them end colonial rule. BUI DIEM (speaking English): NARRATOR: Meanwhile, famine gripped the northern part of the country. Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese were dying of starvation while Japanese storehouses were filled with rice. DUONG VAN MAI: In those days, garbage was collected by people pushing carts. And my mother remembers that every morning she would see these garbage carts going around and people picking up dead bodies and throwing them on the cart. It was incredible. And people who lived through it never, never forgot. NARRATOR: Duong Van Mai's father was the deputy governor of a province east of Hanoi, the son and grandson of mandarins who had all served the French. He and his wife had 17 children. DUONG VAN MAI: Parents who had children who were, you know, plump, were very afraid of their children being stolen and killed. And it was really like hell on earth. The government didn't have a clue on how to deal with this calamity. NARRATOR: But Ho Chi Minh did. He directed the Viet Minh to break into the Japanese storehouses wherever they could and distribute the rice to the people. They were hailed as saviors. (engine starts) (explosion) NARRATOR: When an atomic bomb destroyed Hiroshima, and three days later a second one destroyed Nagasaki, Japanese surrender seemed imminent. Ho Chi Minh called upon all Vietnamese to rise up and take over their own country before the Free French could reestablish their old colonial regime. They did, in cities and towns across the country. On September 2, 1945, the same day the Japanese formally surrendered, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese streamed into Ba Dinh Square in Hanoi to see for the first time the mysterious leader of the Viet Minh and hear him proclaim Vietnam's independence. (Ho Chi Minh speaking Vietnamese) NARRATOR: With an OSS officer standing nearby, Ho Chi Minh began with the words of Thomas Jefferson: "All men are created equal. "They are endowed by their creator "with certain unalienable rights; "that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." DONG SI NGUYEN: GEORGE WICKES: Ho Chi Minh had great hopes that the U.S. would support the Vietnam desire for independence, not necessarily by intervening but by doing what it could to support an independence movement. NARRATOR: Ho Chi Minh's hopes for American support were calculated but understandable. President Franklin Roosevelt had promised a postwar world that would "respect the rights of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they live." But Roosevelt was dead now, and his successor, Harry Truman, had inherited a very different world. The alliance with the Soviet Union that had won the Second World War had collapsed. The Soviets now occupied the Eastern European countries they had overrun, and hoped to spread their influence farther, into Iran, Turkey, and the Mediterranean. A new cold war had begun. French president Charles De Gaulle warned that if the United States insisted on independence for her colonies, France might have no choice but to "fall into the Russian orbit." The United States must do nothing to undercut the restoration of France's empire, including Vietnam. WICKES: There were hardly any Americans in Vietnam, you know-- State Department people, consular officials, a few businessmen. Hardly anyone from this country knew where Vietnam was located. NARRATOR: George Wickes was part of a seven-man OSS mission sent to Saigon, the largest city in the south. The United States was officially neutral, hoping the French and Viet Minh could reach some peaceful solution on their own. Allied leaders had agreed temporarily to divide Vietnam into two separate zones. Nationalist Chinese troops were to handle things in the north. British colonial troops would try to perform the same task in the south, where rival factions, including the French and Viet Minh, were already fighting in the streets of Saigon. WICKES: No one was in charge. On both sides, there was brutality and atrocity and violence. It wasn't quite a civil war but it was getting very close to civil war in the streets of Saigon. NARRATOR: Lieutenant Colonel Peter Dewey, the 28-year-old commander of the OSS in Saigon, tried to make sense of it all. WICKES: Right from the start he was in touch with everybody-- not only the French, but very soon he established a connection with various Vietnamese groups. The Viet Minh soon established themselves as the most successful. NARRATOR: Dewey, who spoke fluent French, brokered talks between a Viet Minh spokesman and the senior French representative in the city. His efforts infuriated British general Douglas Gracey, who commanded Allied forces in the south. Gracey was convinced that French control should be reimposed as soon as possible. By conferring with the Viet Minh, Gracey said, Colonel Dewey had become a "subversive" force. (gunfire) The violence in and around Saigon escalated. Colonel Dewey urgently cabled his superiors: Vietnam "is burning," he wrote. "The French and British are finished here and the United States," he concluded, "ought to clear out of Southeast Asia." (gunfire) Two days later, September 26, 1945, he set out for the airport, prepared to fly to OSS headquarters. At a roadblock, the Viet Minh mistook Dewey for a Frenchman and opened fire. (gunfire) He was killed instantly. WICKES: Ho Chi Minh wrote to the United States lamenting the death of Dewey, whom he recognized as a person sympathetic to his cause. It seemed a terrible irony that Dewey, who was doing what he could to help the Vietnamese independence movement should have been killed by the Vietnamese by a mistake. (electronic buzzing, muted helicopter blades beating) An elderly African-American woman answered the door. I think she knew the instant she saw us why we were there. And the padre said, uh, "I'm... I'm terribly sorry to inform you, but your son was killed in Vietnam." And she just sat down. Didn't say a word. Then the... her husband says, "No, there's a mistake." He comes back with this letter. And he said, "Look, see? We got it yesterday, my... our son was still alive yesterday." And the chaplain looked at the letter and he said, "It's a week old. I think your son was killed on the day he wrote this letter." ("La Marseillaise" playing) NARRATOR: In the fall of 1945, a week after Colonel Dewey's death, fresh French troops began arriving in Saigon, taking over from the British. They quickly established control of the city and set out to reoccupy the entire country. Ho Chi Minh hoped somehow to achieve independence without a war with France, and he still hoped the United States would intervene. "You never had an empire, never exploited the Asian peoples," he would tell a visiting American journalist. "Do not be blinded by this issue of communism." LESLIE GELB: He did not want to fight the French as an enemy of America. And, in fact, I saw the letters he wrote to President Truman saying, "We believe in the same things you believe." Those letters I saw in the CIA files, they had never been given to President Truman. (children shouting) NARRATOR: In June of 1946, Ho Chi Minh returned to Paris in a fruitless attempt to get the French to live up to a promise they had made of increased autonomy for his country. While Ho was away, General Giap began consolidating communist control of the revolution. He conducted a merciless purge of members of rival nationalist parties and people he called "reactionary saboteurs"-- landlords and moneylenders, Trotskyites and Catholics, men and women accused of collaborating with the French. Hundreds were shot, drowned, buried alive. LAM QUANG THI: NARRATOR: On December 19, 1946, after months of building tension, fighting broke out in Hanoi between the Viet Minh and the French. (gunfire) The Viet Minh proved no match for French firepower. Ho, Giap, and their comrades slipped out of the city and returned to their mountain stronghold far to the north. "Those who have rifles will use their rifles," Ho declared in a radio address calling for a nationwide guerrilla war. "Those who have swords will use swords; those who have no swords will use spades or sticks." NGUYEN NGOC: NARRATOR: But the country Ho Chi Minh hoped to unite was itself bitterly divided. Families were being torn apart. Despite her father's position in the French government, Duong Van Mai's sister felt compelled to answer Ho's call. DUONG VAN MAI: My older sister Thang was married to a man who had great sympathy for the Viet Minh. And by that time Ho Chi Minh had evacuated his government to the mountain base. So my sister and her husband trekked all the way from Hanoi toward the base in order to join the resistance against the French. So the Vietnam War was really a civil war down to the family level. NARRATOR: France poured thousands of men into Vietnam-- French regulars, European mercenaries, and colonial troops from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Senegal-- who fought alongside an army of Cambodians, Laotians, and anti-communist Vietnamese. French forces managed to occupy most of the large towns and province capitals and established hundreds of isolated outposts. The French also set out to try to win over rural Vietnamese through a program they called pacification-- pacification-- building dikes, schools and roads, and vaccinating children. DUONG VAN MAI: The French would pacify a village and during the daytime they could control it. But at night the Viet Minh would come back. And so it was never completely secure. My father would shake his head and said, you know, "Pacification is really futile because it's like trying to hold sand in your fingers." NARRATOR: The Viet Minh mined roads, blew up bridges and railroads, ambushed French patrols, and then disappeared. French soldiers sometimes took revenge on the nearest village, burning homes, raping women, executing men suspected of aiding the Viet Minh. LE CONG HUAN: NARRATOR: But the communists proved every bit as ruthless as the French. "It is better to kill even those who might be innocent," one commander said, "than to let a guilty person go." And they specifically targeted anyone who had links to the French. DUONG VAN MAI: Once my father started working for the French, then he was a target, especially the higher he rose, the bigger target he became. A Viet Minh agent actually came in with a pistol to shoot him but at the last moment decided not to. TRAN NGOC ("HARRY") HUE: (gunfire) NARRATOR: French casualties continued to mount. "There are days when we are so discouraged that we would like to give it all up," a French soldier wrote his mother. "Convoys under attack, roads cut, "firing in all directions every night, the indifference at home." ROGER HARRIS: While I was there I had the opportunity to call my mother, you know. And I was telling my mother what was happening over there, and I was telling her how she shouldn't believe what she sees in the newspaper and sees on television because we're losing the war. I said, "And you'll probably never see me again "because we're the most northern outpost that the Marines have, you know." We could literally... could look right into North Vietnam. We could see the sparks when the guns fired on us. And I said, "And everybody in my unit is dying. I probably won't be coming back." And my mother said, "No, you're coming back." She said, "I talk to God every day and you're special. You're coming back." And I said, "Ma, everybody's mother thinks "that they're special. You know, I'm putting pieces of special people in bags." (explosion) ED HERLIHY: President Truman's dramatic announcement that Russia had the atom secret caused state departments all over the world to stir uneasily. HAL KUSHNER: We were very aware that there was a Cold War and that we had an enemy, and that enemy was the Soviet Union. The United States stood at one pole and the Soviet Union stood at the other pole. It was kind of a Manichean dynamic that there was evil and there was good. And we were good, and the other side was evil. It wasn't morally ambiguous. NARRATOR: Just a few weeks after Russia became a nuclear power, there was more stunning news-- communist forces under Mao Zedong seized control of China. Separate communist insurrections were also underway in the British colonies of Burma and Malaya. In January 1950, Mao formally recognized Ho Chi Minh's insurgency and agreed to provide the arms, equipment, and military training he had been seeking. The Soviets recognized the Viet Minh as well, and also offered help. President Truman, who was being blamed by his political opponents for having "lost" China, and having failed to "contain" communism, approved a $23 million aid program for the French in Vietnam. The United States was no longer neutral. SAM WILSON: We were caught on the horns of a dilemma of how can we maintain our friendship and our alliance with the French and support them in Indochina while we, as a former colony ourselves, sympathized with the Vietnamese and their aspirations for freedom and independence? ED HERLIHY: A highly trained and well-equipped North Korean Army swarmed across the 38th parallel to attack unprepared South Korean defenders. (explosion) NARRATOR: In June of 1950, China's ally, communist North Korea, invaded South Korea. (gunfire) President Truman ordered tens of thousands of American ground troops onto the Korean Peninsula. The United States and its allies eventually pushed the invaders back north. Meanwhile in southern China, Mao's military was beginning to turn the Viet Minh into a modern fighting force, capable of inflicting a heavy toll on the French occupiers. In July, the Truman administration quietly dispatched transport planes and a shipload of jeeps to Vietnam. Thirty-five military advisors went along to oversee their use. None of them, and no one in the American embassy, spoke a word of Vietnamese. But the United States was now officially in Vietnam. In October of 1950, hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops began pouring into North Korea, driving the allies back down the peninsula. As that fighting raged, Truman continued to increase military aid for the French war in Vietnam. HARRY TRUMAN: If aggression is successful in Korea, we can expect it to spread throughout Asia and Europe and to this hemisphere. (mortar fire) We are fighting in Korea for our own national security and survival. ("Mean Old World" by T-Bone Walker playing) NARRATOR: In the autumn of 1951, a young Massachusetts congressman named John F. Kennedy dined at the rooftop bar of the Hotel Majestic overlooking Saigon. (distant gunfire) As he and his party ate, they could hear the thunder of guns across the Saigon River. French commanders assured Kennedy that with more American support, French rule would be re-established. But Kennedy spent two hours with Seymour Topping, a seasoned American reporter, who gave him a very different perspective: the French were losing, he said, and many Vietnamese who had once admired the Americans were beginning to despise them for backing the French. Kennedy believed the reporter. Unless the United States could persuade the Vietnamese that it was as opposed to "injustice and inequality" as it was to communism, he told his constituents when he got home, the current effort would result in "foredoomed failure." (Rosemary Clooney singing "Come On-a My House") ♪ Come on-a my house, my house, I'm gonna give you candy ♪ NARRATOR: In 1952, General Dwight Eisenhower was elected president, in part because he promised to take a tougher stance on communism. That year, American taxpayers were footing more than 30% of the bill for the French war in Vietnam. Within two years, that number would rise to nearly 80%. CLOONEY: ♪ Everything, everything, everything ♪ RICHARD NIXON: And many of you ask this question: Why is the United States spending hundreds of millions of dollars supporting the forces of the French Union in the fight against communism in Indochina? I think perhaps if we go over to the map here, I can indicate to you why it is so vitally important. Here's Indochina. If Indochina falls, Thailand is put in an almost impossible position. The same is true of Malaya with its rubber and tin. Now may I say that as far as the war in Indochina is concerned, that I was there, right on the battlefield, or close to it, and it's a bloody war, and it's a bitter one. (explosions) NARRATOR: By 1953, the French had been fighting for seven years. They had suffered over 100,000 casualties and failed to pacify the countryside. Six commanders had come and gone. Nevertheless, the seventh commander, General Henri Navarre, assured his countrymen that victory was near. "Now we can see it clearly," he said, "like the light at the end of the tunnel." Meanwhile, large parts of the French population were horrified by reports of French brutality and the widespread use of napalm-- gelatinized petroleum that burned foliage, homes, and human flesh. When returning French troops disembarked at Marseilles, members of the longshoremen's union pelted them with rocks. Parisian leftists began to call the conflict "La Sale Guerre"-- "The Dirty War." (police sirens wailing, people chanting) RON FERRIZZI: The camera was a close-up, was over the shoulder of this storm trooper who had a kid by the scruff of his shirt and he smacks him. REPORTER: People screaming... FERRIZZI: At that moment in time, I realized that anybody who really cared for America was sent halfway around the world chasing some ghost in a jungle. In the meantime, my country's being torn apart. So I saw somebody who looked like my dad hitting somebody who looked like me. Whose side would I be on? ED HERLIHY: In Korea, three years of combat end as United Nations and communist negotiators at Panmunjom sign a truce. NARRATOR: In July of 1953, the Korean War ended in a negotiated settlement and a still-divided peninsula. American policymakers saw it as proof that communism in Asia could be contained. HERLIHY: And in Washington, a dramatic evening press conference... NARRATOR: That fall, the French indicated their willingness to begin talks to end the fighting in Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh agreed to meet. But before the negotiators were to convene in Geneva, each side sought to improve its position on the battlefield. General Navarre set up a fortified base in a remote valley in northwestern Vietnam called Dien Bien Phu, where he hoped to lure the Viet Minh into a decisive battle. Navarre was certain that superior French firepower and air support would crush any attack by the Viet Minh. He and his commanders saw no need to worry about the jungle-covered hills that overlooked his 11,000 men, dug in on the valley floor. The artillery commander was so confident of victory, he complained, "I have more guns than I need." General Giap saw his chance. "We decided to wipe out at all costs the whole enemy force at Dien Bien Phu," he remembered. To do it, he pulled off one of the greatest logistical feats in military history-- a feat that would be restaged in propaganda films and celebrated for decades. A quarter of a million civilian porters-- nearly half of them women-- moved everything he needed for a siege, from sacks of rice to disassembled artillery pieces, on foot through the jungle. Giap surrounded the valley with 50,000 soldiers and 200 big guns, dug-in and camouflaged so well they could not be spotted from the air. On March 13, 1954, Viet Minh artillery on the hillsides began raining down 50 shells a minute on the French troops huddled below. (explosions) The airstrip was destroyed. The besieged troops could only be reinforced and resupplied by airdrop. The French artillery commander, who had underestimated his enemy, committed suicide. NEWSREEL NARRATOR: The airlift to Dien Bien Phu continues-- vital men and supplies for the heroic garrison that has defied the massed Viet Minh onslaughts for over six weeks. Today, Dien Bien Phu is a human dam trying to stem the red tide that threatens to engulf Southeast Asia. NARRATOR: The French government begged President Eisenhower to intervene. He refused to act without Congressional approval and support from European allies. Britain said no and the Congress would not support unilateral action. JOHN F. KENNEDY: The communists under Ho Chi Minh are able to claim that they are fighting for independence and the French appear to be fighting for a maintain... maintenance of colonial rule. I therefore believe that before the United States moves in, in any degree, that independence must be granted to the people, that the people must support the struggle. NARRATOR: "I am convinced," Eisenhower confided to his diary, "that no military victory is possible in this theater." Still, without consulting Congress, the president had secretly sent more American transport planes, their markings painted over and flown by civilian contractors, to help resupply the desperate French troops at Dien Bien Phu. GELB: Everyone understood that in and of itself, Vietnam didn't mean very much. But they believed, I believed, if we lost it, that the rest of Asia would tumble to communism. EISENHOWER: You have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the falling domino principle. You have a row of dominoes set up, and you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. (explosion) (muted gunfire) NARRATOR: On the afternoon of May 7, 1954, after 55 days of siege, the exhausted French forces at Dien Bien Phu surrendered. They had lost 8,000 men, killed, wounded, or missing. General Giap had lost three times as many, but he had won a great victory. NGUYEN THOI BUNG: NARRATOR: Even Duong Van Mai's parents could not help but be impressed. DUONG VAN MAI: They were very proud that the Viet Minh had defeated the French, this great Western power. Admiration and respect on the one hand, but fear on the other hand. And fear was the stronger emotion. NARRATOR: "We have been caught bluffing by our enemies," Senate Minority Leader Lyndon Johnson said. "Today it is Indochina, tomorrow Asia may be in flames. And the day after, the Western Alliance will lie in ruins." DONALD GREGG: We should have seen it as the end of the colonial era in Southeast Asia, which it really was. But instead we saw it in Cold War terms, and we saw it as a defeat for the free world that was related to the rise of China. And it was a total misreading of a pivotal event, which cost us very dearly. (chanting) (newsreel music playing) JACK TOBIN: The former home of the League of Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, where East is meeting West in the international conference that may decisively affect the political future of Asia. NARRATOR: The day after the fall of Dien Bien Phu, diplomats from nine nations gathered in Geneva to settle the future of Vietnam. The talks dragged on for nearly two-and-a-half months. Despite their victory, Ho Chi Minh and General Giap could not keep fighting without more support from China and the Soviet Union. But China had lost a million men in Korea and did not want to become involved in another war along its border. The Soviet Union was hoping to ease tensions with the West. Both of Ho Chi Minh's communist patrons urged him to agree to a negotiated settlement, a partition like the one that had ended the Korean War. Ho had no option but to give in. In the end, no one was satisfied. Vietnam was temporarily to be divided at the 17th parallel. The 130,000 French-led troops stationed in the North were to withdraw to the South, and somewhere between 50,000 and 90,000 Viet Minh were to "re-group" to the North. The two halves would be separated by a demilitarized zone until an election could be held to reunify North and South Vietnam, an election everyone knew Ho Chi Minh would win. NGUYEN VAN TONG: (cheering) NGUYEN THOI BUNG: KARL MARLANTES: We had started walking up and we had probably gotten about a third of the way up the hill and then they unleashed on us. (explosion, gunfire) We were in the middle of this horrible ... sandwich. That's what we called it. (explosion, gunfire) One of the things that I learned in the war is that we're not the top species on the planet because we're nice. People talk a lot about how well the military turns, you know, kids into, you know, killing machines and stuff. And I'll always argue that it's just finishing school. (gunfire) (shouting) NEWSREEL NARRATOR: Braving the dangers of the open sea in tiny, rickety craft, thousands of Roman Catholic and Buddhist faith have found life impossible under the communists. For them, it's freedom or nothing. NARRATOR: Under the Geneva Accords, civilians living in either half of Vietnam who wanted to relocate to the other would have 300 days to do so. DUONG VAN MAI: My mother and father wanted to stay and meet my sister Thang again because they knew Thang would come back. But on the other hand they couldn't risk that. They were convinced that when Ho Chi Minh and his government arrived in Hanoi, my father would be the first one to be killed and all of us would be persecuted. And I remember the day we left. I looked around and I thought, "I never come back here again." It was extremely traumatic. It was like the ground was suddenly cut from under you. NARRATOR: In the end, some 900,000 refugees, including more than half of all the Catholics living in the North, fled to the South, many of them aboard American ships. The United States hoped somehow to encourage the building of a legitimate government in the South. That government was now headed by Ngo Dinh Diem. Both a Roman Catholic and a Confucian in a largely Buddhist country, he was a celibate bachelor who had once planned to be a priest. GELB: The war for us really started when we became the partner, or I would say the victim, of President Diem. We were going to help him turn South Vietnam into a democracy. That's what he said he wanted to do. And we believed him. NARRATOR: Like Ho Chi Minh, Diem had spent years abroad seeking support for his own brand of Vietnamese nationalism. He was a veteran politician whose loathing for the French was matched only by his hatred for the communists, who had imprisoned him and buried alive his eldest brother and his nephew. Diem was aloof, autocratic, mistrustful of anyone much beyond his own family. He also proved to be shrewd, resourceful, and skilled at exploiting the weaknesses of his opponents. But he faced a daunting task in creating a new country. The French, who still had thousands of troops stationed in the South, detested Diem. Several provinces were under the sway of religious sects with armies of their own. Tens of thousands of Viet Minh soldiers had gone north, but several thousand cadre-- trained and dedicated Communist Party workers-- had stayed behind to organize resistance in the countryside. And Saigon itself was ruled by the Binh Xuyen, a crime syndicate backed by the French. RUFUS PHILLIPS: And the French were behind the Binh Xuyen, sort of supporting them because they didn't want Diem to succeed. And that became the central contest. NARRATOR: Some in the CIA believed that Diem could be the savior of South Vietnam. Others were not so sure. "He is a messiah without a message," one diplomat reported to Washington. The U.S. ambassador agreed. On April 27, 1955, President Eisenhower decided to end American support for Diem's regime. (gunfire) But then Diem made an all-out assault on the Binh Xuyen syndicate. (sirens blaring, gunfire) DUONG VAN MAI: Suddenly in the middle of the day we heard gunfire and then we saw flames and the neighborhood was burning. MICHAEL FITZMAURICE: There are hundreds of dead and wounded on both sides as the street fighting continues for an entire week. For the United States, the situation presents a grave problem. Diem finally regains control of Saigon. NARRATOR: In the end, Diem's forces prevailed. Eisenhower now saw no option but to stick with Diem. The French then announced their intention to withdraw completely from South Vietnam, ending nearly a century of occupation. PHILLIPS: Diem became wildly popular because he seemed to embody the nationalist cause in the South. He succeeded in getting the French out of Vietnam all the way. And Ho Chi Minh had only got them out of the northern half. NARRATOR: Flush with victory, Diem called for a referendum in the South. The CIA warned him not to meddle too much with the returns. But when the ballots were counted, Diem claimed to have won 98.2% of the vote. On October 26, 1955, Ngo Dinh Diem named himself the first president of the brand-new Republic of Vietnam. The election to reunify the North and South that had been promised at Geneva would never be held. GELB: He became our ally, or rather our master, because the goal of preventing the communists from taking over the South was so strong that we couldn't afford for him to lose. So Diem started to boss us around. And this was a typical relationship. You need any ally you believe to be the centerpiece of your foreign policy. They understand that right away. And the tail wags the dog. ED HERLIHY: From the Far East comes a distinguished visitor. President Ngo Dinh Diem of Vietnam is accorded one of President Eisenhower's rare airport greetings, as he arrives for a four-day state visit. President Diem, one of America's staunchest allies in Southeast Asia, will seek an increase in aid to shore up his country against increasing communist pressure, a request to which the president lends a sympathetic ear. NARRATOR: Most politicians, Democrats as well as Republicans, now seemed to share the changing views of Senator John F. Kennedy. South Vietnam is "our offspring," he said. "We cannot abandon it." If it fell, the United States would be "held responsible and our prestige in Asia will sink to a new low." There had never before been a South Vietnamese nation, but Americans, who had rebuilt much of their own country during the New Deal and had helped rebuild Western Europe through the Marshall Plan, were convinced they could build one nonetheless. (blows whistle) Eisenhower ordered scores of American civilians to South Vietnam, full of plans for economic development meant to win, he hoped, the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people. But those civilians would always be outnumbered by military advisors, with orders to modernize, train, and equip Diem's forces, now called the Army of the Republic of Vietnam-- the ARVN. Some ARVN officers found American methods unsuited to the guerrilla war they expected to wage against the communists. Most American military advisors were veterans of the war in Korea, determined to prepare South Vietnamese forces to slow a conventional invasion from the North. But no one in North Vietnam was planning a conventional invasion. Ho Chi Minh was focused on rebuilding his country, devastated by more than a decade of war. The communists imposed brutal land reforms modeled on those underway in China with a ruthlessness that left thousands of people dead, including not only landlords who had sided with the French, but also many villagers who had fought with the Viet Minh. Ho Chi Minh was still determined to reunite Vietnam. But he worried that if he took direct military action against the South, the United States would be drawn more deeply into the struggle. He cautioned his comrades in the South to put their faith in political agitation and avoid violence. But that message rang hollow among embattled Southern revolutionaries struggling to survive under Diem's increasingly harsh regime. In a campaign he called "Denounce the Communists," Diem had imprisoned tens of thousands of citizens without trial and ordered the executions of hundreds more. Now, the communists took matters into their own hands and began attacking South Vietnamese officials. LE QUAN CONG: NARRATOR: As violence in South Vietnam intensified, new leaders emerged in Hanoi. Ho Chi Minh would remain the face of the revolution around the world, but he now began to share power with men who were growing impatient with his caution, men about whom Americans knew almost nothing. The most important proved to be a carpenter's son from Quang Tri province in the South named Le Duan. He had helped found the Indochinese Communist Party, survived nearly ten years in a French prison, and proved himself a shrewd political infighter as he rose to become First Secretary of the party. NGUYEN NGOC: NARRATOR: By 1959, Le Duan and his hardline allies were gaining influence within the North Vietnamese Politburo and beginning to change its policy. They now argued that Hanoi should do everything within its power to help Southern revolutionaries remove Diem by force. BUI DIEM (speaking English): NARRATOR: Now, bands of 40 to 50 armed Viet Minh began slipping back home into South Vietnam, following jungle paths hacked through the Laotian mountains that the Americans would soon call the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Violence against the Diem regime steadily accelerated. (gunfire) (siren blaring) On the evening of July 8, 1959, at Bien Hoa, 20 miles northeast of Saigon, six American military advisors were watching a movie in their mess hall. Viet Minh guerrillas, who had crept silently into the compound, opened fire through the windows. (rapid gunfire) Major Dale Buis from Pender, Nebraska, and Master Sergeant Chester Ovnand from Copperas Cove, Texas, were killed. They were the first American soldiers to die from enemy fire in the Vietnam War. JOHN KENNEDY: We must prove all over again, to a watching world, as we sit on a most conspicuous stage, whether this nation, conceived as it is with its freedom of choice, its breadth of opportunity, its range of alternatives, can compete with the single-minded advance of the communist system. NARRATOR: On November 8, 1960, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected president of the United States. His vice president was Senator Lyndon Johnson. They had narrowly beaten Vice President Richard Nixon and his running mate, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge. During the campaign, both Kennedy and Nixon had pledged to hold the line against international communism wherever it seemed to be a threat. But very few Americans knew or cared about what was going on in Vietnam. Six weeks after Kennedy's election, at a remote jungle village called Tan Lap near the Cambodian border, representatives of southern revolutionary groups met to form a new organization to replace the Viet Minh, dedicated to overthrowing Ngo Dinh Diem and ousting the foreigners supporting him. Behind the scenes, Le Duan and his communist comrades in Hanoi were orchestrating everything. The new organization would be called the National Liberation Front-- the NLF. The armed wing of the NLF was called the People's Liberation Armed Forces, but its enemies in Saigon and Washington preferred a more disparaging term. In their eyes, the revolutionaries were Communist Traitors to the Vietnamese Nation-- the Viet Cong. (muted shouting) HUY DUC: JOHN KENNEDY: Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty. TIM O'BRIEN: For me, I'd always thought of courage as charging enemy bunkers or standing up under fire. But just to walk, day after day from village to village and through the paddies and up into the mountains, just to get up in the morning and look out at the land and think, "In a few minutes I'll be walking out there "and will my corpse be there, over there? Will I lose a leg out there?" Just to walk felt incredibly brave. I would sometimes look at my legs as I walked, thinking, how am I doing this? ("A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" by Bob Dylan playing) ♪ Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son? ♪ ♪ And where have you been, my darling young one? ♪ ♪ I've stumbled on the side of 12 misty mountains ♪ ♪ I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways ♪ ♪ I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests ♪ ♪ I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans ♪ ♪ I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard ♪ ♪ And it's a hard, it's a hard ♪ ♪ It's a hard, it's a hard ♪ ♪ It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall ♪ ♪ Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son? ♪ ♪ And what did you see, my darling young one? ♪ ♪ I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it ♪ ♪ I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it ♪ ♪ I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin' ♪ ♪ I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin' ♪ ♪ I saw a white ladder all covered with water ♪ ♪ I saw 10,000 talkers whose tongues were all broken ♪ ♪ I saw guns with sharp swords in the hands of young children ♪ ♪ And it's a hard, it's a hard ♪ ♪ It's a hard, and it's a hard ♪ ♪ It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall ♪ ♪ And it's a hard, it's a hard ♪ ♪ It's a hard, and it's a hard ♪ ♪ It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall. ♪ Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH, access.wgbh.org ANNOUNCER: MAJOR SUPPORT FOR "THE VIETNAM WAR" WAS PROVIDED BY MEMBERS OF THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY, INCLUDING JONATHAN AND JEANNIE LAVINE, DIANE AND HAL BRIERLEY, AMY AND DAVID ABRAMS, JOHN AND CATHERINE DEBS, THE FULLERTON FAMILY CHARITABLE FUND, THE MONTRONE FAMILY, LYNDA AND STEWART RESNICK, THE PERRY AND DONNA GOLKIN FAMILY FOUNDATION, THE LYNCH FOUNDATION, THE ROGER AND ROSEMARY ENRICO FOUNDATION, AND BY THESE ADDITIONAL FUNDERS. MAJOR FUNDING WAS ALSO PROVIDED BY DAVID H. KOCH... THE BLAVATNIK FAMILY FOUNDATION... THE PARK FOUNDATION, THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES, THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS, THE JOHN S. AND JAMES L. KNIGHT FOUNDATION, THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION, THE ARTHUR VINING DAVIS FOUNDATIONS, THE FORD FOUNDATION JUSTFILMS, BY THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING, AND BY VIEWERS LIKE YOU. THANK YOU. Announcer: Can looking back push us forward? Man: Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Billie Holiday. ♪ Will our voice be heard through time? Can our past inspire our future? ...act of concern... ♪ Bank of America supports filmmakers like Ken Burns, whose narratives illuminate new perspectives. What would you like the power to do? Bank of America.

I, Franklin Delano Roosevelt... Lyndon Baines Johnson... Richard Milhous Nixon... Do solemnly swear... That I will faithfully execute the office... ...of president of the United States. ANNOUNCER: "American Experience" presents the definitive collection of presidential biographies. Tonight... My name is Jimmy Carter and I'm running for president. ANNOUNCER: He promised the country new leadership. MAN: Jimmy Carter represented honesty and decency. ANNOUNCER: But his presidency would be held hostage. WOMAN: It came to symbolize whether he was strong. ANNOUNCER: The definitive collection of presidential biographies continues with "Jimmy Carter." MAN: His devotion to peace and human rights keep on resonating. ANNOUNCER: Tonight on "American Experience." ♪ ♪ (crowd exclaiming) ♪ ♪ MAN: Blast off! The clock is running! (horn honks) ♪ ♪ (crowd cheering) (gunfire) MAN: Gibbons is down! ♪ ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ JIMMY CARTER: I promised you four years ago that I would never lie to you, so I can't stand here tonight and say it doesn't hurt. About an hour ago, I called Governor Reagan in California and I congratulated him for a fine victory. I look forward to working closely with him... DAN CARTER: All his life he believed that if you worked hard enough at it, understood the issues, mastered information, then you would come out first. I said to him, "It must have been hard to turn over the keys to Ronald Reagan," and he said, "You don't know how hard it was." NARRATOR: On January 20, 1981, after one of the most humiliating defeats in American political history, President Jimmy Carter returned home to Plains, Georgia, to what he called, "An altogether new, unwanted and potentially empty life." ROSALYNN CARTER: He really was better than I was when we came home because, um, I was so depressed about it that he was always trying to prop me up. (crowd cheering, applauding) NARRATOR: Four years before, he had stunned the nation. (cheering) PATRICK CADDELL: Going from total anonymity to being president of the United States in less than 12 months is unprecedented in American history. If it weren't for the country looking for something in '76, Carter could never have gotten elected. DOUGLAS BRINKLEY: He offered a biography of what we wanted to hear-- a farmer, Main Street values, Plains-- and he carried that message through. It was the right message at the right time. CARTER: Our commitment to human rights must be absolute. NARRATOR: He had promised a new beginning, to heal the wounds of Watergate and Vietnam-- a government as good and decent and compassionate as the American people. (crowd chanting) But events would overwhelm him-- an energy crisis, inflation, an Islamic revolution, and 53 Americans held hostage 444 days. Carter came to be regarded as a good and decent man who was in over his head. ELIZABETH DREW: He's a very, very smart man and very well-intentioned, but feel... feel is very, very important in politics, especially in a president, and Carter just didn't have very much of it. What he had was a moral ideology and the issues where he proved successful-- the Panama Canal treaties, the human rights crusades, peace in the Middle East-- those were issues where his moral ideology guided him. In a nation that was proud of hard work... NARRATOR: "Carter was one of the more exasperating men ever to claim the White House," one journalist said. "His tenacity, so admirable, could shift to stubbornness, "his religious faith to self-righteousness. His brilliant mind could be bound up by intricate details." Many times the one argument that I would find would ruin a person's case is when you'd say, "This is good for you, politically." He didn't want to hear that. He didn't want to think that way and he didn't want his staff to think that way. He wanted to know what's right. BRINKLEY: This is one of the most highly ambitious people you'll ever meet. I mean, you don't make it from Plains, Georgia, to the White House just on charm. But what makes him complex is he's got that kind of hubris and arrogance and also this Christian humbleness, and that's the battle he's constantly finding himself in. NARRATOR: "As a child, my greatest ambition was to be valuable around the farm and to please my father," Jimmy Carter wrote of his boyhood in rural Georgia. "He was the center of my life and the focus of my admiration." DAN CARTER: I can't believe that Jimmy Carter ever felt lost, in the sense that he didn't know where his place was in the world. And a lot of that comes from his father, who not only was a well-respected, powerful figure in the community, but I think had a real sense of who he was. And that certitude and self-confidence was something that his son, I think, absorbed unconsciously. NARRATOR: By the standards of southwest Georgia, Earl Carter presided over a small empire. A staunch segregationist, he owned some 350 acres of land where he planted corn, cotton and peanuts, employing more than 200 workers at harvest time. Five sharecropper families, who depended on him for their survival, lived year-round at his farm in Archery. Carter's mother, Lillian, was an avid reader, loved traveling and was known to enjoy a sip of bourbon. She put in long hours as a nurse at a nearby hospital and devoted much of her free time to helping sick neighbors. She got paid in chickens and vegetables and that kind of things because she really helped and felt called to help those that had less than her, and I think she instilled that in all of her children. ROSALYNN CARTER: She was the only person in Plains who would take up for Abraham Lincoln if he was ever brought up. Today it's unbelievable to think about that, but back then it was just a way of life, and we never thought anything... we never thought it was really wrong. NARRATOR: Lillian set for Jimmy the example of service to others. Earl put the steel in his character. BETTY GLAD: He was very demanding. He expected his children to be the very best, and, um, in some ways they all had that built into them. NARRATOR: "I never remember him saying 'good job' when I did my best to fulfill his orders," Jimmy later said. "The punishments he administered remain vivid in my memory." (train whistle blows) A short distance from the Carter farm was Plains, Georgia-- population 600-- the only place for miles to get a cup of coffee, a haircut, buy or sell goods. It is the place Jimmy Carter always called home, where as a child he went to the all-white Baptist church on Sundays and where he attended the all-white public school. DAN CARTER: Everybody knew that he was special. He was somebody different, smarter than, worked harder than, did more than, ceaselessly working at improving himself, even as a child. NARRATOR: Jimmy made all "A"s. He played basketball and joined the book lover's club, read Shakespeare's King Lear, Ben-Hur, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. He dreamed of joining the Navy. His uncle Tom Gordy had excited his imagination with tales of adventures, and postcards and gifts from exotic, faraway places. In June 1943, at age 18, the farm boy from Plains was admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis-- the first Carter ever to leave Georgia to pursue a higher education. ROSALYNN CARTER: Jimmy's sister Ruth was my best friend and she had a picture of him on the wall in her bedroom. I just thought he was the most handsome young man I had ever seen. One day I confessed to her that I wished she would let me take that photograph home, because I just thought I had fallen in love with Jimmy Carter. NARRATOR: Rosalynn Smith was shy, a dedicated student, read the Bible daily and went to church on Sundays. Her mother once described her as a girl who could wear a white dress all day and keep it clean. E. STANLY GODBOLD: She was very bright. She was a reader. She liked to look at maps. She was always interested in seeing the world and, uh, she always wanted to get away. ROSALYNN CARTER: I went to a meeting at the church and I was standing outside and Jimmy drove up with Ruth and her boyfriend, got out of the car and came up and asked me to go to the movie. He kissed me good-bye. I was thrilled to death, and then we started corresponding and, uh, by the time Christmas came, I was swept off my feet. NARRATOR: One month after his graduation from Annapolis, Jimmy and Rosalynn were married. She was 18, he was 21. Two years after joining the Navy, Ensign Carter was accepted into the submarine service. It was a way to advance rapidly in a highly competitive environment. BRINKLEY: The military was everything for Jimmy Carter. It's his training. He's never a minute late for anything. Punctuality means everything. His sense of order... There's no sense of a mess around Jimmy Carter. It's a certain kind of person that works in a submarine. It takes a kind of mental discipline. NARRATOR: After six years in the service, Lieutenant Carter earned one of the most coveted posts in the Navy-- senior officer of the USS Seawolf, on the vanguard of America's nuclear defense program. ROSALYNN CARTER: He always had one of the best positions in the Navy, and I think it gave him a lot of confidence that he could do whatever he wanted to do. NARRATOR: In 1953, less than a year after he began duty on the Seawolf, Carter received a message from home. His father had cancer and was not expected to live long. Ten years had passed since Carter left Plains for a career in the Navy. Visits home had been rare. Father and son had grown distant. As he sat by Earl's bedside, Jimmy discovered a side of his father he'd never seen before. "Our long conversations were interrupted by a stream of visitors, black and white," Carter later wrote. "A surprising number wanted to recount "how my father's personal influence "and many secret acts of generosity had affected their lives." GLAD: He saw that he had really built a community around himself. A lot of people liked him and, uh, came to see him when he was sick and when he died, came to his funeral. And what Jimmy realized, he didn't have a community for himself. He's actually said to me, "You know," he said, "I wondered at that time, if I died, "how many people would come to my funeral or how many people would care if I died." And I think it made him, at a fairly fundamental level, examine what life is all about. BRINKLEY: He was a shining star in the U.S. Navy who could have gone very, very far. He dropped all that to emulate his father, to take over his father's business. I don't think there's any higher tribute a son could make to his father than to say, "Now that you're dead, Daddy, I want to stand in your shoes." NARRATOR: When Jimmy told Rosalynn, she was furious. "She almost quit me," he later said. CHIP CARTER: Mom was kind of disappointed to be going back to Plains, and she had worked a good bit of her life to get out of there and, uh, they were going back to take over a business that wasn't doing very well. NARRATOR: Carter applied all his energies to peanuts. "He was always experimenting," Rosalynn later wrote. "Trying new things, dreaming up something else he wanted to do." "I had to admit I was enjoying life," Rosalynn later said. The Carters went fishing, played golf, took frequent vacations. (no audio) Jimmy served on the Sumter County Board of Education, taught Sunday School at the Plains Baptist Church, was scoutmaster, vice president of the Lions Club. "But he had come to the point of boredom," Rosalynn remembered. "And one weekday morning in 1962, he got up and put on his Sunday pants." I was really shocked. I had no idea he was thinking about running for the state senate. NARRATOR: The campaign that launched Jimmy Carter's political career lasted all of 15 days. There was no money and no staff-- only family and friends and his own determination. Though he would always play the reluctant politician, even by his first campaign, Carter was no stranger to politics. DAN CARTER: Politics was something he lived and breathed from the time he was a child-- a kind of weekly, daily, even during election season interaction, barbecues. You gathered on the county courthouse grounds for speeches. He talks about going to rallies with his father and remembering them very well. And I think he came to see politics as something not alien, not something he had to make a decision to do, but was almost natural. NARRATOR: "I received a startling education," he said, "one that set the tone for my future career." On January 14, 1963, the morning after the traditional whiskey and barbecued wild hog dinner, Jimmy Carter was sworn in as a member of the Georgia Senate. He was one of 89 new legislators joining the Georgia Assembly, many of them determined to change the old ways of Georgia politics. LEROY JOHNSON: I had the good fortune of being the first black to be elected to the General Assembly of Georgia in 100 years. Carter was one of those persons who came to the Senate at that time, and he was not a leader of the Senate. He was quiet. He was effective. He was deliberate... and he made no waves. NARRATOR: In 1966, after two terms in the Georgia Senate, Jimmy Carter jumped into the race for governor of Georgia. He ran well behind arch- segregationist Lester Maddox, famous for wielding an ax handle to keep blacks away from his chicken restaurant. Carter promised better schools, better hospitals, better roads, and a more competent government. "It is hard to hear "Senator Carter talk about state government and not be impressed by his integrity," one reporter wrote. DAN CARTER: You're not going to turn the applecart upside down, but you're going to bring changes, you're going to bring improvements in the South and you're going to do it by applying good, sound business techniques to everything from the way you run your public institutions to the way you run your government. NARRATOR: Carter took his message to every corner of Georgia. "We never stopped," Rosalynn recalled, "no matter what." By Election Day, he was closing in on the lead. CHIP CARTER: We went to bed thinking we were going to win. I'd gotten up and gone to school the next day, being congratulated about my father winning the primary, and then Billy came to the... about 2:00 in the afternoon and told us that Lester Maddox had beat us by less than a half of a percentage point. So, it was very disheartening. NARRATOR: "We all felt sick," Rosalynn recalled. "We were $66,000 in debt, and Jimmy had lost 22 pounds." After all the miles traveled, the handshakes, the long days, Jimmy Carter was right back where he started when he first ran for the Senate in 1962. Weeks later, with the loss still fresh in his mind, Jimmy went for a walk with his sister Ruth, an evangelical Christian and spiritual healer. All of his life he had been a churchgoing Christian, but now felt that his faith had been superficial. "We are both Baptists," he said, "but what is it that you have that I haven't got?" "Total commitment," she replied. "I belong to Jesus-- everything I am." "Ruth," he answered, "that's what I want." BRINKLEY: At that point he decided that he'd always put Christ in his life first and politics second. But that's been a struggle for him, because politics is the ego and Christ is the humbleness. NARRATOR: The born-again Christian traveled north to blighted neighborhoods in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts as a "personal witness" for Jesus Christ. BRINKLEY: He would go door to door, getting people to witness Christ, take Jesus into their lives. I mean, can you imagine? Ten years later this man is president of the United States, and he's banging on doors, asking people, "Do you want a Bible? Will you take God in your life?" I'm Jimmy Carter, I'm running for governor. How are you? NARRATOR: In 1970, with renewed fervor, Carter ran for governor of Georgia a second time. I have been campaigning almost 18 hours a day without stopping for eight months. I've seen almost every factory shift in Georgia, been in almost every store... ROSALYNN CARTER: It was just kind of an obsession. He had lost, so he had to win. And we worked as hard as we could. Bye. Hi, y'all. NARRATOR: It would not be the amateur run of 1966, but a well-coordinated effort. Carter brought in two Southwest Georgia boys: Jody Powell as his personal assistant, and Hamilton Jordan to manage the campaign. Advertising man Gerald Rafshoon would handle the media. Bert Lance, a banker from Calhoun, played the role of advisor. LANCE: ...though it was a tough, tough campaign and there were many who thought that Carter could not possibly win. NARRATOR: Carter's rival for the Democratic nomination, Carl Sanders, enjoyed a commanding 20% lead. He had the backing of the Atlanta business establishment and the support of African Americans, voting in greater numbers since the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Carter went after Sanders with a vengeance. TV ANNOUNCER: Some candidates in this governor's race have large campaign contributions behind them. Big money asking big favors. Jimmy Carter only has the people of Georgia... NARRATOR: Carter portrayed Sanders as a tool of the Atlanta business establishment and himself as a hard-working Everyman. ANNOUNCER: No wonder Jimmy Carter has a special understanding of the problems facing everyone who works for a living. Isn't it time somebody spoke up for you? GODBOLD: He wanted to appeal to the large middle-class, blue-collar type, predominantly white, and most of these people are going to be segregationists. GLAD: He courted the racist vote. There were some radio ads that he ran in 1970. He said that "Unlike Sanders, I am not trying to get the..." and he sort of slid over whether it was "block" or "black" vote. But it sort of meant the same thing. GODBOLD: Carter himself was not a segregationist in 1970. But he did say things that the segregationists wanted to hear. He was opposed to busing. He was in favor of private schools. He said that he would invite segregationist governor George Wallace to come to Georgia to give a speech. JOHNSON: The only solace that we got and received was the fact that, in private meetings, he convinced us that if he was given an opportunity, he would make things better. He'd always come up with this question of trust. "Trust me. I believe in doing the right thing." GLAD: If you are really trying to accomplish good moral ends, you may have to be a low-life politician to get there. And he didn't probably like doing it that much, but he was willing to do it. (rifle fires, crowd applauds) (rifle fires) CARTER: At the end of a long campaign, I believe I know our people... NARRATOR: On January 12, 1971, Jimmy Carter, age 46, was sworn in as governor of Georgia. North and South, rural and urban... NARRATOR: In his inaugural address, he revealed his true feelings on race. I say to you quite frankly, that the time for racial discrimination is over. (light applause) No poor, rural, weak or black person should ever have to bear the additional burden of being deprived of the opportunity of an education, a job or simple justice. (applause and whistles) JOHNSON: We were extremely pleased. Many of the white segregationists were displeased. And I'm convinced that those people that supported him would not have supported him if they had thought that he would have made that statement. DAN CARTER: I do remember reading his inaugural address and thinking, "This is wonderful." You've got a governor in a Deep South state who is stating emphatically not just that it's time to accept change, but that it's time to really move far beyond that and end all forms of discrimination. NARRATOR: Carter appointed an unprecedented number of women and African Americans, stimulated foreign investment, reformed the state's criminal justice and mental health systems. I see unfair taxes and government waste and I see runaway spending... NARRATOR: The centerpiece of his agenda was a radical plan to streamline state government with savings at every level. LANCE: Everybody had to pay for their own lunch. You know, we had to put two dollars into the kitty. Mary Beasley, who was his secretary at the time, would ask you what you wanted, so you felt honored to be able to go ahead and spend money for a dried-out sandwich. NARRATOR: The governor's proposal to slash the number of government agencies provoked outrage. CARTER: I welcome the confrontation with heads of departments. You know, I'm willing to fight with anybody who opposes a recommendation that would be helpful to... JOHNSON: I saw a completely different side of Carter. In the Senate, he was not assertive. As governor, he was assertive. He knew where he wanted to go, and he knew the direction he wanted to go in. And he wanted complete compliance. NARRATOR: By the time his reorganization bill reached the Senate floor, Carter had alienated most of the assembly. But his bill squeaked through by a handful of votes. FORTSON: As I told the committee up there, he reminds me of a South Georgia turtle who's been blocked by a log. And he just keeps pushing, pushing, pushing straight ahead. He doesn't go around here until he finally gets a soft spot in the log, and right on through he goes. He is a man of great determination and steel. NARRATOR: Election season 1972, Jimmy Carter extended his hospitality to Democratic hopefuls. Barely two years in the governor's mansion, he already had his eye on the White House. CHIP CARTER: Every Democrat running for office came to Georgia. And every single one of them, Dad would ask to come and stay with him at the governor's mansion, and realized that they were just people like him. NARRATOR: That July, Carter led the Georgia delegation to the Democratic National Convention, hoping for the second spot on the ticket. I'm over here in the box and I really can't tell what's going on so much. But Jimmy comes over from the floor and briefs me every once in a while. As you said, it's the first time I've ever been to a convention and I'm just so excited about it. GERALD RAFSHOON: I remember at the end of the McGovern speech, at 3:00 in the morning, Hamilton Jordan and I were walking away from the convention hall. I said, "You know... "if Ed Muskie, Hubert Humphrey, Terry Sanford, "Scoop Jackson, George Wallace, "Ted Kennedy can run for president, Jimmy could run for president." And then of course we said, "If these guys who are running these campaigns"-- like we met the people in the McGovern campaign-- "can run a campaign for president, hell, we could do that." I called Ruth. I said, "Jimmy's going to run for p-p-..." I couldn't even say the word, it was so... unreal to me. NARRATOR: Carter officially announced his candidacy in December 1974. The one-term Southern governor was a long shot. Nobody knew him. It was like picking a name out of the phone book. I mean, it takes a bit of hubris to think you're the best person to be the president of the United States because you were a one-term governor of Georgia. MAN: ♪ Once and for all, why not the best? ♪ BRINKLEY: It's a kind of arrogance run amok. MAN: ♪ You see his name was Jimmy Carter... ♪ CARTER: I want to see us once again have a nation that's as good and honest and decent and truthful and competent and compassionate... and as filled with love as are the American people. JOHN FARRELL: At that time, character was a monumental issue. The country had been through a horrible time and Jimmy Carter represented honesty and decency. CARTER: I'll never tell a lie. I'll never make a misleading statement. I'll never betray the confidence that any of you has in me. BRINKLEY: Lyndon Johnson lied to us about Vietnam. Richard Nixon lied to us about Watergate. He's saying, you know, I'm not one of those turkeys who's messing things up up there. (Allman Brothers' "Ramblin' Man" playing) ♪ Lord, I was born a ramblin' man... ♪ NARRATOR: Carter's campaign strategy was simple: run early and run hard. Before any other candidates even announced, Carter had traveled more than 50,000 miles, visited 37 states and delivered more than 200 speeches. BOURNE: He was a wonderful speaker before small groups. He would get up and talk, without notes, with extraordinary passion. Almost like a preacher, really having the spirit with him. NARRATOR: It was a grassroots effort financed on a shoestring. CHIP CARTER: We had all these stepping stones we had to do. We had to qualify for federal matching funds by a certain point. And we accomplished every one of them. Every time you accomplished one, it gave you more and more confidence. ROSALYNN CARTER: We had our boys out, we had Aunt Sissy out, we had his mother-- all going in different directions. CHIP CARTER: At one point in the presidential campaign we had 11 family members in 11 different states at the same time. We were out every day, knocking on doors. We knocked on 60,000 doors in New Hampshire. That was probably almost every Democratic household that we could identify in the whole state. WALTER CRONKITE: Jimmy Carter took a long lead tonight in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. He won the New Hampshire primary handily. (applause) I remember when we couldn't find a microphone. (crowd laughs and cheers) NARRATOR: Carter's stamina seemed superhuman. "Behind that Huckleberry Finn grin," one reporter observed, "there is a perfectionist campaign machine that shuts down only six hours out of 24." State by state, the delegates kept adding up. By the time the Democrats convened in New York, in July 1976, Carter had a lock on the nomination. (band plays "We Shall Overcome") MONDALE: The fact that Carter could unite the nation, North and South, and give us a clean shot for the presidency-- this was the culmination of my dreams. My name is Jimmy Carter and I'm running for president. (applause and cheering) And now I've come here to accept your nomination. (thunderous applause) GLAD: He'd pulled off a miracle. In the fall of 1975, he was barely visible as a candidate, below five percent in all the polls. And suddenly, six months later, he has the Democratic presidential nomination, and he is running 70% in the public opinion polls. That is a miracle. Now, the problem was that he had his vulnerabilities, and they showed in the fall. (train whistle blowing) CARTER: This election means a lot to our country. NARRATOR: Carter began the fall campaign against incumbent president Gerald Ford with a 15-point lead. CARTER: We've been disappointed, disillusioned. We've been kept out of government. We've been embarrassed. Sometimes we've been ashamed... NARRATOR: He returned to the themes of honesty and trust that had defined his primary campaign. Jimmy Carter will say anything, anywhere, to be president of the United States. NARRATOR: But as Election Day approached, he was pressured to take a stand on the issues. He wanders, he wavers, he waffles and he wiggles. He isn't the man... LANCE: He was a moderate to the moderates. He was a conservative to the conservatives. He was a liberal to the liberals. And in fact, he was all of those things. We're going to have a fair government once again. We're going to have a government that's open and not secret, once again. JOSHUA MURAVCHIK: His standard line when asked about his foreign policy was that he wanted to provide a foreign policy as good as the American people. Well, gee, that's great but what in the world does it mean? You can depend on it. You help me, I'll help you. Thank you very much. GLAD: The gist of what he presented was that he would be a centrist Democrat who had liberal values in his heart, as well as the desire for frugality and thrift and efficiency in government. And so he could appeal to people from all parts of the Democratic Party. But as Julian Bond said at one point, "The problem with this is that his support was an inch deep and a mile wide." NARRATOR: Alarmed that support among liberal Democrats was eroding, Carter's young staff made a bold move. CADDELL: We did the Playboy interview to show that being a born-again Christian was not a threat to more secular Democrats and young people. NARRATOR: For five hours, Carter tried to explain his views on culture, politics and faith. Toward the end of the interview, exasperated at not being understood, he said, "I've looked on a lot of women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times." CADDELL: If you read the interview, the "lust in your heart" line was to try to explain that he, too, was a sinner, that... But the language was-- and I would see this all the time-- Carter used language that was germane to his world, to his... like we all do-- to our own cultural context. Here's a guy who is so moral, but on the one hand he talks about he's lusted after women in his heart, and he talks about shacking up and he uses language that's going to really enrage and turn off a lot of people. BRINKLEY: Do not underestimate what a crisis that interview and the "lust in my heart" caused Carter. It almost derailed the entire Carter campaign. They were in havoc over it. CADDELL: In retrospect, it was kind of amusing. It wasn't very funny at the time, trying to explain to people that Jimmy Carter was not some child molester, you know, I mean, or pervert. The Playboy thing has been of very great concern to me. I don't know how to deal with it exactly. NARRATOR: By the time Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford met in the first of two presidential debates, Carter's lead had evaporated. The momentum belonged to Ford. Two weeks later, he blundered. FORD: There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration. Uh, I'm sorry, could I just follow... Did I understand you to say, sir, that the Russians are not using Eastern Europe as their own sphere of influence... MONDALE: We knew that this was going to hurt, that a lot of people couldn't see how a president would say that. It gave us about a week, as I recall, to pound away on this. And you could just feel people moving on that question. So what it did, I think, was rather than electing us, it stopped our slide. (applause and cheering) NARRATOR: By Election Day, the polls showed a dead heat. It was not until 3:00 a.m. that the networks announced the winner-- by one of the closest margins in American history. (cheering) CADDELL: I look back now, and I just... I'm amazed. Going from total anonymity to being president of the United States in less than 12 months is unprecedented in American history. If it weren't for the country looking for something in '76, Carter could never have gotten elected. He'd never have been allowed out of the box. BRINKLEY: He offered a biography of what we wanted to hear: farmer, Main Street values, Plains. It was the right message at the right time and it didn't happen by accident. Carter created that message, knowing that that's what would win the day. I came all the way through. Took 22 months, and I didn't get... choked up until I... (crowd chuckles) (crowd applauds) (crowd cheers and whistles) CRONKITE: This was not planned, it was not scheduled and whether this is Carter's surprise for his inaugural, by golly, Bob, how about that? NARRATOR: The morning of January 20, 1977, Jimmy Carter surprised the nation. CHIP CARTER: I remember I was out there walking and you could hear Walter Cronkite over the loudspeaker saying, "The president is walking down the street!" It was a major moment of the Carter presidency symbolically. It was great theater. DAN CARTER: Here was this tremendous breath of fresh air. He was going to bring something new to Washington, bring new people and new ideas. CARTER: Our commitment to human rights must be absolute, our laws fair... It was so different from what had come before. People were looking for something that was simple, something that was pure, and it just struck a chord in the American people. CARTER: More is not necessarily better. HERTZBERG: Jimmy Carter was exactly what the American people always say they want: above politics, determined to do the right thing regardless of political consequences, a simple person who doesn't lie, a modest man, not somebody with a lot of imperial pretenses. That's what people say they want and that's what they got with Jimmy Carter. NARRATOR: The Carter team arrived in Washington full of confidence, ready to take on the Washington insiders they had run against. CADDELL: I felt like the advance wave of the German army arriving in Paris in 1940. I mean, this is a Democratic city, and they were terrified-- I mean, terrified. You could feel it in the air. They did not have a lot in common with the national political party. They did not have a lot in common with the Congress. They were a very close-knit band of brothers and they were intensely loyal to Jimmy Carter. And they were pretty cocky guys as well. JODY POWELL: There was clearly some degree of suspicion and maybe even a little bit of resentment that... "Here come these folks riding in here "that didn't really pay their dues. "They're not us. "They're not our kind of folks and all of a sudden they're in the White House," and "We'll show them that this town is tougher than they think." DREW: His top people had no experience in Washington. And they were sort of contemptuous of Washington. Well, it's one thing to sort of run against Washington, but you have to live there and you have to govern there and you have to work with the people who are there, and it really doesn't get you anywhere to have this attitude if you want to get anything done. You get things done by power. You get power from having public support. My argument was that in order to maintain power we would have to reinforce constantly the message of what we were doing. Good evening. Tomorrow will be two weeks since I became president... NARRATOR: On February 2, Carter addressed the nation in a fireside chat on energy. The country had been through an oil scare in 1973. To head off a new crisis, Carter appealed directly to Americans to rally around a new program. All of us must learn to waste less energy. Simply by keeping our thermostats, for instance, at 65 degrees in the daytime and 55 degrees at night, we can save half the current shortage of natural gas. If we learn to live thriftily and remember the importance of helping our neighbors, then we can find ways to adjust. NARRATOR: Carter led by example. He curtailed the use of limousines, canceled magazine subscriptions, unplugged television sets, and put the presidential yacht, Sequoia, on the auction block. He turned off the air conditioners and it was so hot in the White House, people would come in there... (laughs) It was unbelievable. It would be a hundred above in there. NARRATOR: To save on staff overtime, all White House functions would end at midnight. No hard liquor would be served. HERTZBERG: Jimmy Carter is a low church Protestant, where it's a sin not to have a hard wooden bench to sit on in church. And he brought that simplicity to the White House. DAN ROSTENKOWSKI: We were all invited down to the White House every other Tuesday. We walked into the private dining room on the first floor off the East Room. We looked at the table and there were these little fingertip cookies, and... Tip O'Neill looked at me and he said, "What's this?" I said, "I guess that's breakfast." So the president walked in, you know, walked around the room and shook hands with everybody. And O'Neill looked at the president, and he says, "Mr. President, you know, we won the election." CARTER: That's the last time you were here? That's the last time I was in the Oval Office. NARRATOR: Carter presented his agenda to the speaker of the house, Tip O'Neill. Energy was Carter's number-one priority. But it was competing with his long list of other legislation-- bills on hospital cost containment, urban policy, ethics in government. You brought enough for four years' work. I understand that. NARRATOR: There was nothing in the package to grease the wheels of government. Some are of more priority than others. NARRATOR: When Carter struck from his budget 19 multimillion-dollar water projects that had been approved by President Ford, congressmen were furious. DREW: He was absolutely right to take it on-- these sort of boondoggles and unnecessary, really, pork-barrel things-- but he didn't know how to take it on. You have to build political capital, you have to build alliances, you have to make deals. LANCE: The quid pro quo was not in him. If you came to him and said, "Look, we can get so-and-so to vote for us," he would turn a deaf ear. NARRATOR: "He never understood how the system worked," Tip O'Neill would later complain. "And although this was out of character for Jimmy Carter, he didn't want to learn about it either." DAN CARTER: If your job is to find the public good, to arrive at what the public good is and then to articulate it, and then you become the voice of the people. And when you do that, it becomes very difficult to compromise. ROSTENKOWSKI: On one occasion when I was talking to President Carter I said, "Mr. President, "you know, I've had three presidents before you "and I'll have several after you. "I'm telling you, from the vantage point "of what I see in the legislative process, "you will be able to do and what you won't be able to do. Now, you can accept that or not accept it." But Carter's attitude was members of the House and Senate are bad guys. FARRELL: Carter put O'Neill and the others like him in the same category with the corrupt Georgia courthouse pols that he had been fighting for much of his life. The same kind of back-scratching, featherbedding pol, worrying about the next election, worrying about their public opinion polls, coming in and not doing what was right. BRINKLEY: Often, he wouldn't return phone calls of leading senators. There was a kind of an abrasive attitude he had towards them. He never showed them the respect. So they all eventually got bitter and turned on him. DAN CARTER: Even if he had had a personality transplant and he had spent three hours a night playing poker with Tip O'Neill, I don't think that would have made the difference. I mean, he was... he was faced with an extraordinarily difficult set of circumstances, which in part sprang not only from the political situation, but from his... the... the lack of a connection between his own views and those of his party. NARRATOR: "There will be no new programs implemented "unless they are compatible "with my goal of having a balanced budget by the end of my first term," he pledged. But liberal Democrats, eager to resume the social agenda of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, would not back away. STUART EIZENSTAT: There had been an eight-year period when there had been no Democratic president. There were a lot of pent-up and legitimate desires by constituency groups for more investment in a whole range of programs. Although he sympathized with much of it, all of his instincts were to cut budgets, reduce the deficit dramatically. But he was always under pressure from the Left to have more spending. NARRATOR: At a breakfast meeting, Carter berated the congressional Democratic leadership for adding $61 billion in new programs to his budget. "The Democratic Party needs to remove the stigma of unjustified spending," he said. "Mr. President," Tip O'Neill reminded Carter, "the Democrats are the champions of the poor and the indigent." BOURNE: Carter thought that big social programs and large amounts of federal spending would bankrupt the country. He could see, I think, very clearly, the way the world was going, and he knew that old era had to be phased out. Carter, looking back, was being very long-sighted in saying, you know, "We just don't have an open-ended, "never-ending amount of money to spend. We have to get things in balance." NARRATOR: Carter's commitment to fiscal restraint appealed to a growing number of Americans. "He brings to the office a refreshing habit of plain words and simple manners," wrote Newsweek. "A mind and discipline of tempered steel and an insatiable appetite for work." Jimmy Carter had entered the presidency with only 51% of the vote. By June, he enjoyed an approval rating of over 70%. Then came an event that rocked the foundation of the Carter presidency. It was called the Lance Affair. In July 1977, Carter's budget director, Bert Lance, was accused of financial improprieties at his bank in Calhoun, Georgia. A federal investigation cleared Lance of all illegal activity, but concluded that he had engaged in "unsafe and unsound banking practices." CARTER: Bert Lance is a man of competence and a man of integrity, and that his services... NARRATOR: Believing the affair was behind him, Carter stood by his friend. Bert Lance enjoys my complete confidence and support. I'm proud to have him as part of my administration. NARRATOR: Carter had miscalculated. To the press, the issue was ethics, not the law. Sensing a scandal, they went on the attack. POWELL: There were a lot of journalists who very much wanted to prove that they could be as tough on a Democratic president as they had been on... on a Richard Nixon. There was a... a real desire to make sure that it was clear that they were going to pursue this every bit as aggressively. One of the things people like to go after more than anything else is what they perceive as hypocrisy. So that you're judged by the standards that you set for yourself. And certainly, Carter's talking about, "I'll never tell you a lie" and emphasizing honesty provided an easy opportunity. NARRATOR: Carter's inner circle urged him to get rid of Lance. But he was torn between loyalty to his friend and his own reputation. For weeks, he allowed the Lance Affair to fester. REPORTER: Do you feel you were drummed out? LANCE: My statement speaks for itself. I have no comment about being drummed out. I said in my statement that I had to analyze and question what... LANCE: The day that I resigned, I came home, and I was spent. I lay down on the bed crying about the situation, just from the standpoint of just having run out of any adrenaline or emotion or anything else, and so we had all that horde of media out on the front yard that had been there constantly. I guess it was a suicide watch. REPORTER: Any comment at all? DREW: Looking back, it wasn't that big a deal. But what it did do at the time... was give the first blow to the image that Carter was trying to project that his was a squeaky-clean administration. Whether my own credibility has been damaged, I can't say. I would guess to some degree. An unpleasant situation like this... NARRATOR: Carter's approval rating plunged 25 points. POWELL: It would have been better for the president if we had brought that to an end sooner. It threw us off our stride. It made it harder for us to talk about other things and sort of played into questions about whether we could lead and run the country. CADDELL: Until that moment, we had been driving the agenda. Everyone danced to our tune. After that, we danced to everybody else's tune. And that hurt us with the public, because now Jimmy Carter is not in charge. (cheering and applause) NARRATOR: On May 22, 1977, before the graduating class at the University of Notre Dame, President Jimmy Carter unveiled a new foreign policy for the United States. Being confident of our own future, we are now free of that inordinate fear of communism. NARRATOR: Carter had come to office with no experience in foreign affairs, but determined to make his mark. In his first year alone, he met more than 40 heads of state, resumed talks on diplomatic relations with China and with the Soviet Union on arms control. He launched a new peace process in the Middle East and signed a new Canal Treaty with Panama, transferring, after 75 years, ownership of the canal to the Panamanians. But it was a principle straight from his heart that would redefine America's role in the world. We have reaffirmed America's commitment to human rights as a fundamental tenet of our foreign policy. GADDIS SMITH: That was his greatest speech, standing up for our own values, and expecting then that the world would appreciate that, and that we would be-- he didn't use this phrase, but it's an old phrase in American history-- like the beacon on the hill, the beacon of freedom and liberty and democracy. GLAD: He will be remembered for putting on the agenda hereafter the whole issue of human rights. We now assume that the goal of a state is not only to protect its national security interests. It has an obligation to try to deal with human suffering where it has the ability to do that. I feel very deeply that when people are put in prison without trials and tortured and deprived of basic human rights that the president of the United States ought to have a right to express displeasure and to do something about it. MONDALE: His idea is that every child is a child of God and, based on his faith, entitled to the stature and respect and the rights of what that means. NARRATOR: But the biggest challenge to Carter's human rights policy would come in the Middle East. Iran, because of the great leadership of the Shah, is an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world. NARRATOR: Carter was aware of the brutality of Iran's secret police and of 2,500 political prisoners held in Iran's jails. But the Shah, installed to the throne in a U.S.-backed coup in 1953, had long been a trusted ally. New Year's Eve, 1977, in Tehran, Carter reaffirmed America's support. One week after Carter's visit, anti-Shah demonstrations broke out. When Iranian secret police fired on the demonstrators and killed several students, religious leaders called the Shah's government anti-Islamic. DREW: Iran was a very complicated situation. And the Shah was very useful to us. At the same time, something else was going on, something very powerful was going on in Iran. And as I recall, we kind of missed it. We knew there was some resentment and we knew somewhat of the history of the country, but we were not conscious, nor were we informed, of the intensity of the feelings. NARRATOR: Since the days of Plains and peanuts, the marriage of Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter had blossomed into a full partnership. Sometime before Carter became president he realized what a valuable adviser to him Rosalynn was. She was a major player in the campaigns and she did have good rapport with the people. She, of course, was ambitious in her own right. She wanted to be more than a fashion plate and somebody who gave teas. ROSALYNN CARTER: The first year Jimmy was in office, I became so frustrated. Every night, Jimmy would get off the elevator at the White House and I would say, "Why did you do this?" or "Why did you do..." something. And one day, he finally said, "Why don't you come to cabinet meetings? And then you'll know why we do these things." So I started going-- it was always on my calendar-- and I'd just listen. I didn't participate, but I listened. And then I knew why the decisions were made. NARRATOR: The first child to live in the White House since the Kennedy years, nine-year-old Amy had the run of the place. She roller-skated down the marble hallways, played in a tree house her father built for her, and even got a new dog, named Grits. BRINKLEY: She was the apple of her father's eye. President Carter hadn't spent a lot of time with his three sons when they were growing up, so he tried to put a lot of attention and energy into Amy. NARRATOR: In keeping with Carter's populist image, Amy was sent to public school. The media made much of the fact that her best friend was the daughter of the cook at the Chilean embassy. She was such a shy, intelligent girl, it was very hard always having that media glare. And I think after the White House, she's tried her best to stay out of the limelight. NARRATOR: In 1978, the first signs of a gathering economic storm were becoming visible. The stock market was at its lowest point in three years, the trade deficit growing, unemployment on the rise. The most serious problem that our nation has is inflation, and it's getting worse. It's absolutely imperative that Americans commit themselves-- all of us-- to a common sacrifice to control this rapid increase in prices. Carter inherited a no-win economic situation. I see him as the last presidential victim of the war in Vietnam. Every war this country has fought, once it is over, the economy has to readjust to a peacetime economy. I call on the private sector... GODBOLD: And what always happens is runaway inflation. NARRATOR: Carter implored labor and business leaders to keep wages and prices down, and pressured Congress to cut back spending. CARTER: I believe the American people will understand... NARRATOR: But inflation kept rising, his words falling on deaf ears. JAMES LANEY: He has this enormous determination to go after and do what he thinks ought to be done. The capacity to explain, persuade, inspire, mobilize, energize the whole country... I do not have all the answers-- nobody does. LANEY: That was far more tenuous and uncertain. CARTER: But I want to let you know that fighting inflation will be a central... LANEY: He thought people would just follow, but that didn't happen. CARTER: And I want to arouse our nation to join me in this effort. NARRATOR: There were growing doubts about Carter's leadership. The president, most Americans believed, was too mired in details, was ineffective with Congress, had attempted too much and delivered too little. EIZENSTAT: This is a classic case where first impressions often sets in with people and the first impressions of that first year were: too many things, lack of priorities, a lack of accomplishment. The fact is, we actually had a good legislative record, but we had thrown so much up that, in comparison to that, it... the accomplishments seemed to pale. ROSALYNN CARTER: I would sometimes say, "Why don't we do this in your second term?" and he would say, "What if I don't have a second term?" And I think he felt that way the whole time-- that if something needed to be done, it needed to be done. NARRATOR: With an approval rating of only 33%, Time magazine concluded, "He has the potential for growing in the office, but he does not have a great deal of time left." NARRATOR: Nestled in the mountains of Maryland, Camp David was Jimmy Carter's refuge. It was the place he and Rosalynn repaired to on weekends to get away from the pressures of Washington. In September 1978, Jimmy Carter would enshrine Camp David, and himself, in history. MONDALE: He had spent a lot of time studying the Middle East. He felt very deeply that we should try to find peace over there, and boy, he really bet his presidency on that. GLAD: He was already very low in the polls-- he had practically nowhere to go but up-- but he still could possibly win a second term, and if he failed, that would... that would certainly write him off. NARRATOR: Since the creation of the state of Israel, every attempt to bring peace to the Middle East had failed. Refugees, land disputes, terrorism plagued the region. Four wars, the last in 1973, had left a bitter legacy of hate and mistrust. NARRATOR: Everyone urged Carter to stay away from what seemed an intractable situation, but he would not be deterred. "I slowly became hardened, and as stubborn as at any other time I can remember," he wrote. The Middle East, for years had been, and was then, the place where you thought, "If we're going to end up blowing up the world, "that's where it will start. "If there's going to be a nuclear confrontation "between the superpowers, it's going to come out of the Middle East," so finding... you know, finding a way to tamp that down was, to him, extremely important. NARRATOR: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat took the first step toward peace in November 1977, when he became the first Arab leader to set foot on Israeli soil. Carter seized the opportunity. The following September, he welcomed President Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to Camp David to negotiate a treaty that would lay the foundations for peace in the Middle East. GLAD: He brought all of his skills and all the best sides of himself to the whole operation, and all of the potential in Jimmy Carter was out there at Camp David. It was a... really, an extraordinary time. SMITH: He had studied things so carefully. He knew the population of every village in the West Bank and Israel. It's hard to think of a president in our history who had that much capacity to absorb and retain detail. GLAD: He made a mistake at the very beginning. He thought, and told his aides, "You know, we're just going to bring together Begin and Sadat, "and they'll talk and they'll get to know each other and they'll understand each other." Well, he got them there, and it turned out, after the first three meetings, they were practically never talking to each other and things were going downhill very fast. NARRATOR: "It was mean," Carter later recalled. "They were brutal with each other. Face-to-face discussions became an impossibility." On day three-- the expected deadline for an agreement-- Carter had accomplished nothing. "There must be a way," he kept saying, "there must be a way." That night at dinner, alone with Rosalynn, he arrived at a solution. If the two men could not talk to one another, they would have to talk through him. He decided that essentially the Americans would draft the proposal and put the proposal on the table. You wouldn't have an Egyptian and an Israeli proposal. You would have an American proposal. NARRATOR: "I must admit that I capitalized on the situation," Carter later wrote. "It greatly magnified my own influence." Carter devoted himself to drafting an agreement. With more than 50 issues to be resolved, the work was painstaking. He was remarkably tenacious, persistent, persuasive, tough-minded, tough both with Sadat on some occasions and with Begin on other occasions. BRINKLEY: That people trusted him as an honest broker came to play in a very magical and important way. He is seen as somebody who is not a cheat or a liar. He is somebody who puts his money where his mouth is. NARRATOR: "My world became the negotiating rooms, "the study where I pored over my notes and maps of the Middle East," he recalled. "Between sessions, I craved intense exercise and lonely places where I could think and sometimes pray." ROSALYNN CARTER: He had things scheduled after the first week, and I was going into Washington to do some of the things he was supposed to do. And when I would leave to go in, they would say, "Don't smile, because everybody will think they'll be all right. Don't look grim, because they'll think it's failing." That was hard. It was from the depths to the heights all the time at Camp David. One minute you would think it was going to pass and everything was so exciting, and then... and another... another time, it would be just hopeless. POWELL: It always seemed to me that the odds were against success; it always seemed like a long shot, and so I was... I spent a good bit of my time thinking about, "How are we going to deal with this thing if it collapses?" NARRATOR: Shuttling back and forth between Sadat and Begin, Carter began to put together an agreement... a framework for negotiations in the Middle East which would address the fate of the Palestinians and the future of Gaza and the West Bank... and a separate peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. Israel would return the Sinai territories occupied since the 1967 war. Egypt would recognize the right of Israel to live in peace. On September 14, day ten, Carter turned to the issue he knew could derail any progress made so far-- the dismantling of Israeli settlements in the Sinai. BOURNE: Carter was unable to get Begin to make any concessions that would really have locked up an agreement, to the point where Sadat just got fed up and said, "Well, I'm going home," you know. "I'm just not going to wait any... be here any longer," and literally sort of had his coat on and was out the door. NARRATOR: Carter begged Sadat to stay, appealing to their friendship and mutual trust, and reminding him of Egypt's good relations with the United States. Sadat decided to remain at Camp David. Saturday, September 16, Brzezinski wrote in his diary: "The President is driving himself mercilessly. "He has single-handedly written the proposed document for the settlements on the Sinai." Carter presented the formula to Begin. At first he called the demands on Israel "excessive," "political suicide." But in the end he relented, agreeing to submit the question of the Jewish settlements to the Israeli parliament. Jimmy Carter saw a picture of the three major participants on his desk, and he told his secretary to find out the names of Begin's grandchildren and so then he wrote little notes, putting in the names of all the grandchildren. He went over to Begin and said, "You know, this is not just for us. This is for our grandchildren, and let me give this to you." And Begin was profoundly moved by this. NARRATOR: The Camp David Accords were hailed as a monumental triumph of diplomacy. (applause) NARRATOR: "With his brilliant success and inspired leadership, "Carter has taken a first big step toward realizing the promise of his presidency," was the verdict of the press. These negotiations provide that Israel may live in peace within secure and recognized borders, and this great aspiration of Israel has been certified, without constraint, with the greatest degree of enthusiasm, by President Sadat, the leader of one of the greatest nations on earth. (applause) BRINKLEY: There will never be a history of the Middle East written without Jimmy Carter's name in the index. A hundred years from now, 200 years from now, people will be talking about the Camp David process that began in those Maryland mountains. BOURNE: Camp David was the plum of his administration. This was the crowning glory, and it enshrined him in history. To these two friends of mine, the words of Jesus: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be the children of God." (sustained applause) NARRATOR: Sadat and Begin were awarded the Nobel Prize for their contribution to peace. Camp David became the touchstone for all future negotiations on the Middle East. Yet Carter's great success did nothing to improve his standing with the American people. MONDALE: There was something about how we had slipped in the eyes of the American people that prevented us from getting what should have been an enormous lift out of this incredible diplomatic feat. We thought, "Boy, this shows we can get things done. It does bring peace in a crucial area." And there was no movement at all. It was very dispiriting. WOMAN: ♪ Say it's only a paper moon... ♪ NARRATOR: At home, President Carter's leadership was in question. On the world stage, he kept piling up accomplishments. In January 1979, he received Chinese Vice-Premier Deng Xiaoping in Washington to celebrate the establishment of formal relations between the United States and China. WOMAN: ♪ If you believe in me... ♪ NARRATOR: In June, he met Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev in Vienna, to sign the SALT II arms control agreement. From there, it was on to Tokyo for a major economic summit. CADDELL: The country is having this terrible domestic problem and the president is somewhere out on the other side of the world, and not for a couple of days-- for weeks. And I remember getting on the phone and saying, "You people got to come home now." NARRATOR: In one year, the American economy had spun out of control. Gasoline prices had more than doubled, mortgage rates pushed 20%. Unemployment kept on rising. LANCE: There were just so many forces at work. When inflation becomes rampant, interest rates are high and the business cycle is turning against you, it becomes almost impossible. NARRATOR: Of all the problems facing the nation, most Americans now agreed inflation was the most urgent. In the summer of '79, fueled by rising oil prices, it surged to 14%. ROGER WILKINS: Inflation makes you doubt the future. When you have inflation, you don't see as much building going on, you don't see as much investment going on, you don't see as much hiring going on. People weren't seeing their savings growing, and as a matter of fact, people were terrified that inflation would impoverish them in their old age. NARRATOR: Carter acted decisively. To reduce the budget deficit and bring inflation under control, he cut into social programs. "New realities," explained the White House, "must temper our nation's commitment to the poor." BOURNE: It stirred up a hornet's nest of opposition from the Ted Kennedy people, from the traditional FDR coalition. They were very, very angry. NARRATOR: African-American leaders felt betrayed and vowed to wage an all-out fight on what they called Carter's "immoral, unjust and inequitable budget cuts." WILKINS: The leader who most encapsulated the goals that I wanted was Martin King, at the end of his life, saying to the country, "We have to do something about poor Americans. "We're the richest country on the face of the earth, and we've got to do something." Every time I vote for a Democrat, I want that Democrat to have Martin's spirit about poverty in his soul. Jimmy Carter ran away from that. (warning siren wails) NARRATOR: Across America, frustration was reaching a breaking point. In Levittown, Pennsylvania, truckers barricaded expressways to protest high fuel prices, setting off riots, which left 100 injured and led to more than 170 arrests. CADDELL: I thought in '79, we were really headed down the tubes. I now thought we were in deep, deep trouble, and I thought the president was becoming irrelevant. NARRATOR: Polls showed Carter falling behind Ted Kennedy as the preferred candidate among Democratic voters, and even losing trial heats to the likely Republican nominee, Ronald Reagan. WOMAN: I don't think he has control of the situation; I think he's a very religious man, a very nice man, but I just don't think he's capable of the job. A lot of people think he's shaky, you know, and I'm one of them. I think he's kind of shaky. I think that he's a really floundering leader. I don't see him as a leader, and I don't look to him for leadership. NARRATOR: President Carter's approval rating was 25%-- lower than President Richard Nixon's at the time of Watergate. "It all seems to be falling down around me in the White House," he told a friend. "I don't know what to do." MONDALE: I think he was losing some of that essential nerve that he has in such abundance, but just for a brief moment there. It was really, uh... I was heartsick, and I felt so sorry for him. NARRATOR: Carter groped for a way to reassert his leadership. One adviser suggested that he give a major speech on energy and put the full blame of the economic crisis on the high price of Middle East oil. EIZENSTAT: When we drew the outlines up, he was really quite disgusted. This is just more of the same. It doesn't address the basic problems. People will see this as pablum. We need something more. ROSALYNN CARTER: Jimmy had made several speeches on energy. He was trying to impress upon people the fact that they needed to conserve and it just seemed to be going nowhere with the public. And so he just said, "I'm not going to make the speech." So he got on a conference call with his senior staff, and the way he put it, very pungently, was, "I just don't want to bullshit the American people." NARRATOR: Carter retreated to Camp David. For the next ten days, businessmen, labor leaders, governors, pop psychologists and clergy were called to the mountaintop to participate in one of the most extraordinary episodes of presidential soul searching in American history. HERTZBERG: Basically this was a kind of self-psychoanalysis by Carter and the administration. He sat up there and listened to the most scalding critiques of his presidency. NARRATOR: "They told me that I seemed bogged down in details," Carter wrote. "That the public acknowledged my intelligence and integrity, "but doubted my capacity to follow through with a strong enough thrust to succeed." Within Carter's own staff a fierce debate raged over what had gone wrong and what President Carter should say to the American people. Carter's pollster argued the president should address a subject deeper than energy or the economy; that there was a crisis of the American spirit. CADDELL: For the first time, we actually got numbers where people no longer believed that the future of America was going to be as good as it was now. Never in the history of American polling had that ever existed-- that Americans ever, even if they believed it, ever evidenced, would say, "Oh, my children will have it worse than I am. "The country's going to get worse. We've already had our heyday." And that really shook me, because it was so anti... so anti-American. I made the point, and Mondale made the point, that if there was a problem with the American spirit, it was because of the underlying problems of inflation and energy, not because there was something wrong with the American people. I argued that there were real problems in America that were not mysterious, that were not rooted in some kind of national psychosis or breakdown; that there were real gas lines, there was real inflation, that people were worried in their real lives about keeping their jobs. CADDELL: The vice president of the United States was looking at me and basically accusing me of being insane. You had this real division, and then Jimmy Carter ended it by saying-- and this moment, I'll never forget it-- he ends the thing, saying, "I just wanted to hear what you all said. "I've decided; I'm going to do everything that Pat said." Good evening. This is a special night for me. NARRATOR: On July 15, after a ten-day retreat, Jimmy Carter descended from the mountains of Maryland to deliver the most controversial speech of his administration. I want to speak to you first tonight about a subject even more serious than energy or inflation. I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy. The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. HERTZBERG: The speech was more like a sermon than a political speech, and it had the themes of confession, redemption and sacrifice. And he was bringing the American people into this spiritual process that he had been through and presenting them with an opportunity for redemption as well as redeeming himself. In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. FARRELL: The speech unfairly was labeled the "malaise speech," because it talked about the fact that the country was in a difficult situation, which it was. But Americans don't always want their public leaders to come to them and say, "Hey, we're in a bunch of trouble." When your leadership is demonstrably weaker than it should be, you don't then point at the people and say, "It's your problem." If you want the people to move, you move them the way Roosevelt moved them, or you exhort them the way Kennedy or Johnson exhorted them. You don't say, "It's your fault." BRINKLEY: The op-ed pieces started spinning out saying, "There's nothing wrong with the American people. "We're a great people. "Maybe the problem's in the White House. Maybe we need new leadership to guide us." It boomeranged on him. POWELL: If you make a bold stroke like that, you do have to think about how do you follow it up. What does day three and day four and day five look like? How do you translate that into additional steps? And we botched that. NARRATOR: To give the impression of a fresh start, Carter asked his entire cabinet to submit their resignations. Five were accepted. FARRELL: By firing the cabinet the way he did, Carter just telegraphed to the country that he wasn't up for the job. It was a sign of panic. It looked like this was a president who was thrashing about, looking for other people to blame. NARRATOR: Carter's approval rating dropped even lower. "After all the Camp David meetings, "the dramatic speech on July 15 "and the cabinet firings, he is back where he began," one analyst wrote, "a chief executive rejected by his ultimate constituency-- the American people." That fall, the liberal wing of the Democratic Party finally broke with the president, throwing its support behind Ted Kennedy. The senator from Massachusetts would wage a brutal campaign for the Democratic nomination. For Jimmy Carter, nothing seemed to be going right. He collapsed while running a ten-kilometer race. It was taken as a sign of weakness. He became the butt of jokes when a story broke that he'd been attacked by a giant rabbit while fishing in Georgia. Even the Carter family, once thought fun and colorful, was becoming a liability. Billy was investigated for accepting a bribe from the Libyan government. Furious, Carter distanced himself from Billy. "I have no control over my brother and he has no control over me," he said. On November 4, 1979, it would all seem trivial. A few days earlier, 3,500 Iranian students had marched toward the American embassy in Tehran, threatening to overtake it. (demonstrators chanting) NARRATOR: The anti-Shah movement, which had begun in early 1978, had grown into a full-fledged Islamic revolution. The Shah was driven into exile and the Ayatollah Khomeini became the leader of a new and mysterious Islamic republic. BRZEZINSKI: I never had any illusions about Khomeini. I didn't have much familiarity with fundamentalist Islam, but I knew he would be a menace. SMITH: If Carter had been more critical of the Shah, conceivably it would have been a little more difficult for the Ayatollah Khomeini to identify the United States as the great Satan and to say everything that is wrong in Iran is basically the fault of the United States. Maybe the fact that the United States had been a significant player in Iran since 1945 was such that it was too late for Carter or anybody to change the deeply hostile nature of the Iranian revolution, but it might have made a difference. NARRATOR: In the first few months of the revolution, Carter had worked to build a relationship with the Khomeini regime. But the history of U.S.-Iranian relations would soon catch up with him. For months, the deposed Shah of Iran had wandered the Middle East, then Latin America. Ill with cancer, he asked permission to come to the United States for medical treatment. MONDALE: There were several of us sitting around the table talking about whether the president should permit the reentry of the Shah. We had people tell us that if we let the Shah in, there could be a real negative repercussion in Iran. But the Shah was sort of pathetically flying around the world, and here's this great country saying, "Well, we won't even let you come to one of our hospitals." He went around the room, and a lot of the people said, "Let him in." BRZEZINSKI: I argued that he should be allowed in, because we treated him as an ally in good times, and I felt it was our responsibility to treat him as a former ally, but a friend, in bad times. I felt American credibility was at stake. MONDALE: And he said, "And if, then, this revolution moves in a way "to take our employees in our embassy hostage, then what will be your advice?" And the room just fell dead. (men shouting in Farsi) NARRATOR: The Shah arrived in the United States on October 22. Two weeks later, Iranian students seized the American embassy. 53 Americans were to be held hostage until the United States returned the Shah to Iran. Everyone awaited word from Khomeini. Seeing an opportunity to consolidate his revolution, the Ayatollah gave his blessing, calling the U.S. embassy "a den of spies." CARTER: The United States of America will not yield to international terrorism or to blackmail. CADDELL: It was a defining event. This is the entire United States government captured and held illegally under international law and being taunted every day. WILKINS: The whole world saw these images of these people burning American flags, stomping on images of Carter and the most rancid sort of disrespect and hatred of the United States, on television, around the world, all the time. NARRATOR: "I would lie awake at night, "trying to think of steps I could take "to gain the hostages' freedom, without sacrificing the honor and security of our nation," the president wrote. Carter rejected all military options as too risky. "The problem," he said, "is that we could feel good for a few hours, until we found that they had killed our people." BRINKLEY: He was determined to bring every one of those men back alive. You see the moralism of Carter, the Christianity affecting his foreign policy making, his belief in each human life having a great sanctity to it, his not wanting to have blood on his hands. The successful statesmen have to balance risks, and sometimes... sometimes a risk to a relatively limited number of lives down the road saves many, many more lives. POWELL: To react in a way that was strong and powerful would have set us off down a road that no man could say where it might lead. (TV news theme playing) ANNOUNCER: The Iran crisis. America held hostage. WALTER CRONKITE: Good evening. The 100th day of captivity for 50 Americans in Tehran... DAN RATHER: The 100th flag for 100 days of captivity. NARRATOR: As spring 1980 approached, the hostages had grown into a national obsession, their memory kept alive by millions of yellow ribbons. RATHER: ...and the nation shares their ordeal. NARRATOR: No stone was left unturned trying to bring them home. While Secretary of State Cyrus Vance dealt with Iranian government officials, Hamilton Jordan met secretly with anyone who held out hope. (voices murmuring) I think I have an infection in this eye. NARRATOR: "Our lives became a seesaw of emotions as scheme after scheme fell apart," Rosalynn later recalled. "Every time we saw the hostages on television, I counted them." ROSALYNN CARTER: No one can know how much pressure there was on Jimmy to do something about that. And I would go, like, "Why don't you do something?" And he said, "What would you want me to do?" I said, "Mine the harbors." He said, "Okay, suppose I mine the harbors, "and they decide to take one hostage out every day "and kill him. What am I going to do then?" DREW: Fairly or not, it came to symbolize the question of whether Carter was a leader, whether he was competent, whether he was strong. (clock ticking) NARRATOR: By April, pressure was growing intense, and the situation increasingly hopeless. "We could no longer afford to depend on diplomacy," Carter was forced to conclude. "I knew from an intelligence report "that there was little prospect of the hostages' release "for the next five or six months. I decided to act." It was called "Desert I." It required six C-130 transport planes, a 90-man rescue team, two C-141 Starlifters, eight helicopters and nearly impossible logistics. GLAD: It was a highly risky operation. The CIA even talked about the number of people-- including the hostages-- who might be killed; but it was doing something. NARRATOR: South of Tehran, in the Iranian desert, the rescue mission turned into a disaster. Two helicopters failed, another crashed into a C-130 in a sandstorm. Eight men died in Desert 1. Three more were severely burned. CARTER: It was my decision to attempt the rescue operation. It was my decision to cancel it when problems developed. The responsibility is fully my own. POWELL: I sort of thought at the time, "Well, people will give the president credit for trying." But I also realized that now the chances of being able to get those people out anytime in the near future was very, very slim, and that, from a political standpoint, that was going to be a heavy burden to bear. NARRATOR: In August 1980, President Carter survived the challenge from Senator Edward Kennedy for the Democratic nomination. The campaign had been bitter and divisive, but in the end, Kennedy had seemed too liberal and too tainted by scandal. (cheering) EIZENSTAT: The attack from the left was extremely debilitating, and the fact that we had a divided party going into the general election in 1980 against Ronald Reagan was an additional albatross beyond the hostage crisis and beyond inflation. REAGAN: Jimmy Carter's administration tells us that the descendants of those who sacrificed to start again in this land of freedom may have to abandon the dream that drew their ancestors to a new life in a new land. NARRATOR: Republican candidate Ronald Reagan launched his campaign on Labor Day with a broadside attack delivered before an audience of working-class Americans. ...record is a litany of despair, of broken promises, of sacred trusts abandoned and forgotten. WILKINS: Reagan was a very formidable fellow. The combination of his beliefs-- which were not numerous, but they were clear-- um, and his acting skills really made people sit up and say, "This is... this guy means and believes what he's saying." NARRATOR: Carter trailed Reagan by more than 20 points. With the Soviets in Afghanistan, the hostages in Iran and the economy in shambles, he was vulnerable. LANCE: We were still going through tough economic circumstances. People were hurting. Interest rates were higher, unemployment was higher, inflation was greater. ANNOUNCER: When you come right down to it, what kind of a person should occupy the Oval Office? NARRATOR: Unable to run on his record, Carter went on the attack, portraying Reagan as trigger-happy cowboy with his finger on the nuclear button. ANNOUNCER: ...and a destroyer to Ecuador to deal with a fishing controversy? CADDELL: We didn't have any cards to play because there wasn't any cards to play. We were now trapped by events, trapped by a government that couldn't come up with any ideas, and basically, we were frustrating the hell out of people. But they still trusted Jimmy Carter not to blow the world up, and that was our only hope. ...the cost of hospital care... NARRATOR: On October 28, 100 million viewers, the largest audience ever to watch a presidential debate, tuned in. The candidates were running neck and neck. ...then the insurance would help pay for it. These are the kind of elements of a national health insurance important to the American people. Governor Reagan, again, typically, is against such a proposal. MODERATOR: Governor? There you go again. When I opposed Medicare... CADDELL: He had won it in the first half-hour by not being crazy. What had happened was you could see the shift in the beginning of the debate, over 90 minutes was a sense of "he's not dangerous." And that's all he had to do. DAN RATHER: Today, the vigil of the hostages lengthens to one whole year. NARRATOR: The Monday before Election Day played like a nightmare for Jimmy Carter. ANNOUNCER: Today, the Majlis spelled out conditions for release of the American hostages now ending their first year in captivity, and the four conditions are the same as those set down... POWELL: A good portion of that weekend leading up to it and all day Monday, Americans were literally having their nose rubbed in this embarrassing, irritating, humiliating situation. NARRATOR: Carter campaigned all day and into the night in Mississippi, Oregon, Washington. He arrived in Seattle at 3:00 a.m.-- the last rally, the last speech. POWELL: I had stayed on the plane to finish up something. Before I could get off, the phone rang. And it was Hamilton Jordan and Pat Caddell back in Washington. They had seen the tracking polls from that day, and they said, "It's basically over." Tomorrow, vote for yourselves. Vote Democratic, help us. God be with you. POWELL: I went in to hear his speech, thinking that I was the only person there who knew that, basically, the election was over and that we had lost. NARRATOR: It was a landslide. Carter won only six states. For the first time in 28 years, the Democratic Party lost control of the Senate. On the last day of his presidency, Jimmy Carter stayed up through the night. A deal with Iran had been reached. The release of the hostages was imminent. A crew from ABC News stood by to record the historic moment. You're not sending that film anywhere, are you? MONDALE: He wanted to get these hostages home on his watch. And this was not about getting reelected anymore. This was about getting this done, because he felt so deeply about it. We were in the Oval Office around, maybe, 2:00 in the morning. And nothing happening. Dead silence. But we got to the time where it was 9:00 in the morning. We had to be at the inaugural. The new president was coming in at 11:00. And finally, we all started running off. And we still had one officer back there with a phone, the hot line, in case there was any news. REPORTER: Here they are now. WOMAN: Is there any word about the hostages? Have they taken off? MONDALE: And he was in contact with Carter all the way up the inaugural route and on the platform. So if there were anything that was positive or negative, he'd hear about it. MAN: ♪ And the home of the... ♪ MONDALE: And of course, the story was that Khomeini released them the minute after Reagan was president. (man finishes anthem) NARRATOR: January 20, 1981. 3,000 people gathered at the old train depot in Plains to welcome the Carters home. POPE: There was a sea of umbrellas out there in the public, standing in the cold and the rain, waiting for him. And it was a bittersweet day. CHIP CARTER: I think they reacted just like anybody else would that had just been rejected by 200 million people. It was one of the toughest times they've ever been through, I think. ROSALYNN CARTER: He really was better than I was when we came home, because I was so depressed about it that he was always trying to prop me up. NARRATOR: The Carters settled in to write their memoirs and to make plans to build a presidential library. But Carter had little enthusiasm for building what he called "a monument to myself." ROSALYNN CARTER: One night, I woke up and Jimmy was sitting straight up in the bed. This is after we'd been home about a year. And I said, "What's the matter?" I thought he was sick, because he always sleeps all night, even in the White House. He can turn things off and go to sleep. And he said, "I know what we can do at the library. We can have a place to resolve conflicts." And so that was the germ of the idea for what became The Carter Center. NARRATOR: Inspired by his success in the Camp David Accords, Carter envisioned a place where he could host world leaders and mediate civil wars and political disputes. At a cost of $28 million, The Carter Center would span 35 acres, include an arboretum, a lake, and room enough for a staff of more than 100. When we dedicate this center, Mr. President, we dedicate an institution that testifies, as does your life itself, to the goodness of God and to the blessings He bestows upon those who do their best to walk with Him. NARRATOR: In 1986, at the inauguration of The Carter Center, President Reagan expressed the growing respect many now felt for the man they had once rejected. (applause) NARRATOR: Through The Carter Center, Jimmy Carter would launch his new career as an elder statesman. In his travels throughout the world, Carter has championed the cause of the poor and the disenfranchised. HERTZBERG: Being a good post-president doesn't retrospectively make you a better president. What a post-presidency can do, though, is to illuminate which aspects of a president's character were real and which were phony. All of his strengths-- perseverance and dedication, integrity, those have all turned out to be very, very real. LANCE: He never lied to the American people, he kept the peace, he brought the hostages home without loss of life-- all the things that he said that he was going to do. It was a time when we needed that sort of person as president that people could put some faith and trust in. BRINKLEY: What was Carter? He never had a kind of nutshell program. He had no interest in either the New Deal tradition of Franklin Roosevelt or the New Frontier tradition of John Kennedy or the Great Society of Lyndon Johnson. He never crystallized a great agenda of what he wanted to do. He simply tackled issues as they confronted him, one by one by one. HERTZBERG: I think history is going to look at him in a kindlier light than his contemporaries did. His values, his devotion to peace and human rights, keep on resonating in a way that his failures and weaknesses don't. ♪♪ ♪♪ American Experience "Jimmy Carter" is available on DVD. To order, visit shopPBS.org or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS. American Experience is also available for download on iTunes. Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH ac cess.wgbh.org

You know, I received an invitation that said, "Please come to Ellis Island July 4 "for the hundredth birthday celebration of an American institution." Somebody goofed-- my birthday isn't until February. ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: On July 4, 1986, as he lit a refurbished Statue of Liberty, Ronald Reagan was at the height of his prestige. Many wondered which American icon was being celebrated. (orchestra playing intro to "America the Beautiful") REAGAN: Tonight we pledge ourselves to each other and to the cause of human freedom-- a cause that has given light to this land and hope to the world. (crowd applauding) CHORUS: ♪ O beautiful for spacious skies... ♪ NARRATOR: Ronald Reagan saw America as a special place, a shining city on a hill, set by God between two oceans as a beacon of freedom to the rest of the world. Reagan is brilliant at creating a kind of rapport with the country, appealing to its better angels, appealing to the native optimism, which is so much a part of our culture and our tradition. CHORUS: ♪ God shed his grace on thee ♪ ♪ And crown thy good with brotherhood... ♪ MAN: When he was asked, on the eve of his election, "What is it, Governor, that people see in you?" And Reagan responds, "Would you laugh if I told you that they look at me and they see themselves?" WOMAN: And I didn't understand why people had this adulation for him. I thought he could possibly press the button. Yeah. I was terrified. (crowd cheering) MAN: If you seek his monument, look around at what you don't see. You don't see the Berlin Wall. You don't see the Iron Curtain from Stettin to Trieste. NARRATOR: He was America's most ideological president in his rhetoric, yet pragmatic in his actions. He believed in balanced budgets, but never submitted one. He hated nuclear weapons, but built them by the thousands. He would write checks to a poor person as he cut the benefits of many. He united the country with renewed patriotism, but his vision of America alienated millions. He preached family values, but presided over a dysfunctional family. You're not going to figure him out. That's the first thing you need to know. I don't think he's figured himself out. I haven't figured him out. I don't know anybody who has figured him out. There is this mystery about Reagan that pervades everything, which is, how much was he aware of what he was doing? NARRATOR: Inattentive to detail and often disengaged, Reagan led a revolution based on a few simple ideals-- to free Americans from big government and the world from communist oppression. MAN: Before Reagan, every Western leader had the same strategic objective regarding the Soviet Union, which is to not lose. Reagan came in and he said, "I don't want to play to not lose; I want to play to win." MAN: He's tough. He braces to talk to you. It's confrontational. Not unpleasant, but confrontational. MAN: I often think of him as a nice, soft, silky pillow, and you could touch it and feel it, it was very nice. But if you decided, well, let's take a hard punch and you hit it hard, you would find in the middle a solid-steel tempered bar. (crowd cheering and applauding) That was the real Ronald Reagan. That was the essence of Reagan. (cheers and applause continues) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: As president, Ronald Reagan evoked a simpler place and a simpler time. (crowd cheering) ♪ ♪ Small towns, patriotic values, family, and community. An idealized America that no longer was, that perhaps never was... Even for Ronald Reagan. He was born in 1911 on the main and only street of Tampico, Illinois, in circumstances so poor that years later, while visiting his birthplace, he visibly recoiled. His father, Jack, was a shoe salesman with a taste for whiskey who spent his life in search of his big break. From age four, Dutch-- as his parents called him-- lived the life of a gypsy. Every year a new town... new neighbors... friends left behind. Dutch had nowhere to go, except within. MAN: Always in childhood, you will see this distance. In a group of small-town schoolchildren, little Ronnie will always be sitting with his face on his left hand-- a remote little boy who somehow held himself aloof from everybody else. He carried this... distance, this remoteness, this aloofness right through. On the one hand, he's one of the warmest, most amiable, gentlemanly, kindest people you'd ever want to meet. And yet he has almost no close friends. I mean, really, in fact, no close friends. ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: Reagan would rarely speak of the pain of his childhood. He would recall it as "one of those rare Huck Finn-Tom Sawyer idylls. "There were woods and mysteries, "life and death among the small creatures, hunting and fishing; "those were the days when I learned the real riches of rags." MAN: I think it's that kind of willful optimism in the face of reality as experienced and defined by others that tells you a lot about Ronald Reagan and perhaps even is one clue to understanding his presidency. NARRATOR: Dutch was nine years old when the family finally settled in Dixon, Illinois. A town of 8,000, Dixon was the essence of "Main Street" America. Reagan would remember it as "a small universe "where I learned standards and values that would guide me for the rest of my life." MAN: It was the era of Calvin Coolidge's presidency. Values that Coolidge espoused were small-town, churchgoing... rugged individualism, the old 19th-century values of America. It's a time when Americans are particularly drawn to this small-town world, because it's beginning to pass. It's beginning to be eclipsed by the rise of American cities. NARRATOR: The 1920s were a time of change and opportunity, even for the unpredictable Jack. He opened his own shoe store, the Fashion Boot Shop, which became a popular spot in downtown Dixon. MORRIS: His father loved to tell stories, stand outside his store and schmooze with whoever walked past. In fact, Reagan said that his father was the best storyteller he ever knew. NARRATOR: Jack had a weakness Dutch had long known about but never confronted. "I was 11 years old the first time I came home "to find my father flat on his back on the front porch. "He was drunk, dead to the world, "his hair soaked with melting snow. "I bent over him, smelling the sharp odor of whiskey. I managed to drag him inside and get him to bed." DALLEK: One of the threads I see running through Ronald Reagan's career is a great attraction to autonomy, to independence, to freedom. And I think a lot of this was a reaction against the fact that his father had this dependency on a substance and that he couldn't control himself. He would never say anything negative about his father, but the moral disdain behind what he would say was quite palpable. He thought of his father, in other words, as a man with a weakness who should have been strong enough to conquer it. NARRATOR: Reagan's mother, Nelle, a devout Christian, became his moral compass. With her guidance, he began to take charge of his life. ♪ ♪ MORRIS: He happened to read a novel which his mother had picked up somewhere called "That Printer of Udell's." It's the story of a young man born in a rather ugly industrial Midwestern town who discovers-- through a series of bitter experiences with an alcoholic father-- who discovers that he has got the gift of oratory, and through his good looks and his voice and his convictions, he manages to create a whole social movement in this town. The young man, Dick Falkner, goes off to Washington to take his message to the world. He went to his mother when he finished that book and he said, "I want to be like that man and I want to be baptized." ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: Reagan embraced his mother's faith based on good works, the Bible, and the belief that the hand of God guides daily life. SMITH: I think it's easy to underestimate the place that fundamentalist Christianity plays in Reagan's life. It's a cynical age, and when we heard that the president didn't go to church on Sunday, we wrote him off as a phony evangelical. In fact, from his mother he imbibed deeply of fundamentalist faith. She gave him this sort of sense of destiny, which was a huge part of it. You know, if you know you're going to be the great man, you don't have to fret and worry about it because the opportunity will come and seize you. NARRATOR: Nelle's church, the Disciples of Christ, became the center of Reagan 's life. He led prayer meetings, taught Sunday school, even dated the minister's daughter, Margaret Cleaver. Reagan determined to live the storybook life of an American youth. He played football, excelled in swimming and often had the lead in school dramas. He would later remember those days as the happiest in his life. But life was sweetest two miles upstream from Dixon on the Rock River, where Dutch Reagan was the lifeguard. MORRIS: "The Rock River flows for you tonight, Mr. President." It was something a radio announcer said to him after he was elected. Came over the airwaves. I've never forgotten that. "The Rock River flows for you tonight, Mr. President." I think the Rock River was the central symbol of his youth. NARRATOR: Ronald Reagan is remembered as actor, governor, president, but it was on the Rock River that he first discovered the role he came to love best. WOMAN: I can remember him yet, very bronzed with his lifeguard sign on his swimsuit and a whistle around his neck, where he watched all the younger kids so they wouldn't get into trouble. We just all remember him as lifeguard. That's the way so many of us do. NARRATOR: Every day, Dutch arrived at Lowell Park at dawn, fetched hundred-pound blocks of ice, stocked the snack bar, and, for the next ten hours, watched swimmers negotiate the currents of the Rock River. During six summers as a lifeguard, he pulled 77 people from the water. MAN: He always went up and cut a notch in the log after he pulled them out. And they weren't probably all going to die, you know. They all weren't going to drown, but they were in serious shape out there. They needed help to get out of the water because of the river current. And 77 is his count, and there was 77 notches in the log out there. MORRIS: The poignant thing about the Rock River is that in his dotage, after he left the White House, when he began to lose his mind, the one thing he would still want to talk about was his days as a lifeguard on the Rock River. He had a picture in his office of the spot where he used to stand as a boy and he would say... (imitating Reagan): "You see, that's where I used to be a lifeguard. I saved 77 lives there." ♪ ♪ His subsequent career-- his subsequent political career, at any rate-- was devoted to the general theme of rescue. NARRATOR: In 1928, at a time when few Americans went to college, Reagan attended Eureka College, run by the Disciples of Christ. He majored in sociology and economics. "I got poor marks," Reagan later admitted, "but I copped off the lead in most plays. And in football, I won three varsity sweaters." Reagan graduated from Eureka in 1932. It was the depths of the Great Depression, but it took Reagan only six weeks to find a job at W.O.C. Radio. Later he moved to Des Moines to work as a sportscaster. Life was easy for Ronald Reagan. He had money, independence, and the time to learn to ride. For the next four summers, using only statistics coming through telegraph, Reagan transported his listeners to the bleachers of Wrigley Field with his vivid recreations of baseball games he never saw. ♪ ♪ CANNON: If you look at where Reagan is really a master communicator, it really is on radio. If you think about Reagan's career as an actor and as a president and as a speaker, just generally, he was a powerful re-creator. He re-created our experiences. I remember Hugh Sidey telling me that when he was a child in Iowa in the '30s, in the Dust Bowl years, he used to hear Ronald Reagan's voice coming over the airwaves. And he said... just doing baseball commentary, but he said, "There was something about that voice "that gave me, as a child, the feeling that life was going to get better." ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: Reagan had long dreamed of becoming an actor, and in 1937, he went to Hollywood. He recalled the moment he stepped onto the set of his first film, "Love Is on the Air." "I was surrounded by a wall of light "which gave me a feeling of privacy "that completely dispelled any nervousness I might have expected." Reagan has always liked to be looked after. He likes to have a Jack Warner in charge of the finances. He likes to have a wardrobe mistress and a supporting cast. He likes to be surrounded by the busyness of a great... commercial enterprise. And that's where, I think, Ronald Reagan became a corporate person. NARRATOR: Ronald Reagan would make more than 50 films. Only in one did he play the villain. DALLEK: Reagan loved the hero's role because he fantasized himself as a heroic figure. The first time his mother sees him in the first film he plays in, she looks at the screen, and she says, "That's my Dutch." And what she's speaking to is the idea that he's himself on the screen, that he's, in a sense, playing out the fantasy that he has that he's very comfortable with. NARRATOR: Reagan was becoming a box office draw. Guaranteed work and steady pay, he brought Nelle and Jack to California and bought them the only home they ever owned. In 1940, he married a promising young actress, Jane Wyman. Ron and Jane became the darlings of the Warner Brothers publicity machine, a valuable asset for an industry preoccupied with its image. CANNON: They were always worried, the people who ran the studios, that some whiff of scandal involving their bright stars would cause people to stop turning up en masse at the box office or that the Legion of Decency would turn on them or something like that. Reagan and Wyman were... were real, you know. They were in love, they were wholesome. People liked to look at them. If you wanted to celebrate the marriage, Reagan was willing, so they did. NARRATOR: With their daughter Maureen and their adopted son Michael, the Reagans were promoted as the perfect Hollywood family. MAN: Ronald Reagan came up from middle America. He came up in the movies in a time where most of the movies were designed to make people feel good when they left rather than to feel sad. He reflected these kinds of qualities. NARRATOR: Reagan was cast as football legend George Gipp in "Knute Rockne, All American." It was his first major film, the one that earned him the nickname "the Gipper." Try it anyway. All right, if you insist. Now, wait a minute. What's your name? Gipp. George Gipp. What's yours? (players laugh) Is he kidding me? Hello, handsome. Oh, hi, Jeb. My, you're a dream tonight. How's the party? I don't know, she hasn't come out yet. Who are you waiting for? Oh, a friend of mine. Promised me a surprise tonight. A night to remember the rest of my life. NARRATOR: In 1940, he played opposite screen giant Errol Flynn in "Santa Fe Trail." But the height of his acting career was as Drake McHugh in "King's Row." Randy! Where's the rest of me?! Drake. Randy! Yes, Drake? It was that accident. NARRATOR: By the time "King's Row" opened, America was at war, and so was Ronald Reagan... but only on the screen. (rapid gunfire) Reagan spent the war making training films at Culver City, less than ten miles from home. He certainly loved... learned and loved to wear a uniform, to act like a soldier, to salute properly. There's nothing he enjoyed more as president than saluting. As commander-in-chief, he would do that little extra flip to the salute, which you hardly ever see in the armed services anyway. It was a real Hollywood salute, but it meant a great deal to him. (marching band playing) (crowd applauds) NARRATOR: Hollywood emerged from World War II with a new understanding of the power of movies in shaping American views. Many who had mobilized in support of the war now turned their attention to other causes. "I blindly joined every organization," Reagan wrote, "that would guarantee to save the world." As a liberal Democrat, he spoke on issues ranging from the dangers of atomic weapons to racial equality. If he knew some of his associates were Communists, he did not seem to care. CANNON: He's involved in these, you know, leftist organizations where the Communists clearly were struggling for control. The Communists valued Hollywood. Reagan is one of these people who would dismiss this, who would dismiss the Communist conspiracy, the Communist threat, and then when he became convinced that it was real, he overdramatized it and overreacted to it. NARRATOR: There had long been Communists in Hollywood-- writers and directors quietly exercising their influence in relative freedom. But as the United States and the Soviet Union slid into the Cold War, they were eyed with growing suspicion. Reagan confronted Communist activism in 1946 when, as a member of the Screen Actors Guild board, he was asked to mediate a dispute between rival unions. One was led by a rumored Communist, Herb Sorrel. Sorrel's union went on strike. "The leadership does not want a settlement," Reagan concluded. "It stands to gain by continued disorder and disruption." ♪ ♪ MORRIS: Reagan liked order, stability, and security, and the fact that they were involved in physical violence at the studio gates, which he personally experienced-- buses being overturned, windows smashed, stones thrown, bottles brandished, some bloodshed-- the fact that he personally witnessed this, personally experienced it, associated it with "Red," as he would have said, "Red domination of the union," that's what turned him. NARRATOR: Sorrel and Reagan went head-to-head. When Reagan crossed the picket line outside Warner Brothers, Sorrel called for a boycott of his movies. Reagan was called a fascist. An anonymous phone caller threatened to disfigure his face so he could never act again. He began carrying a gun. "Now I knew from firsthand experience "how Communists used lies, deceit, and violence to advance the cause of Soviet expansionism," Reagan later recalled. DALLEK: He's the heroic figure battling against Communism. It's not simply that he's fighting against Communism but that he's rescuing the Screen Actors Guild. He's rescuing Hollywood. He's helping to rescue the country from the Communist menace. His effort was to deny them any real foothold in our guild, for example. I recall, at one membership meeting, as he addressed the audience, he said, "You know, of course, that we have some Communists here," and he pointed. "They're going to try to make 11 or 12 people sound like hundreds." And he fought all the way, very hard and very diligently, and, I think, successfully. NARRATOR: Reagan became an informant for the F.B.I. And in 1947, as president of the Screen Actors Guild, he testified as a friendly witness before the House Un-American Activities committee. REAGAN: I will be frank with you that as a citizen, I would hesitate... or I would not like to see any political party outlawed on the basis of its political ideology because we've spent 170 years in this country on the basis that democracy is strong enough to stand up and fight for itself against the inroads of any ideology, no matter how much we may disagree with it. However, if it is proven that this organization is the agent of a foreign power or is in any way not a legitimate political party-- and I think the government is capable of doing that if the proof is there-- then that is another matter. NARRATOR: Ten writers and directors were sentenced to prison-- not for being Communists but for refusing to cooperate with the committee. They and many others were included in a blacklist and denied work. CANNON: Reagan went along with the blacklist. Now, I don't think this is... I don't think he descended the moral depths or anything. He did what most people did, and he did it somewhat more reluctantly and somewhat more slowly than most of them. But the fact is, is that the blacklist is a blemish. NARRATOR: Reagan had discovered his first political passion-- anti-Communism. He paid a high price for his obsession. CANNON: Reagan came home and was told, "This is over, the marriage is over." And that he was totally stunned by it. It was like he was, you know, hit by a ton of bricks, and that was... it was a very, very hard thing for him to accept or get over. NARRATOR: "Perhaps I should have let someone else save the world," he later wrote, "and saved my own home." MORRIS: Reagan was in deep depression. He'd lost his wife. He breaks his leg in an amateur baseball game and is hospitalized for most of 1949. And by the time he'd hobbled out of the hospital on crutches, he was a changed man. And I remember him saying once, over dinner, telling the story of that awful year: "And then along came Nancy Davis and saved my soul." ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: When Ronald Reagan met Nancy Davis, she was a young actress under contract at M.G.M. Wealthy and socially well-connected, she shared with Ronald the experience of an insecure childhood. Abandoned by her father, Nancy was left in the care of an aunt while her mother, actress Edith Lucket, toured the country. Nancy was eight when Edith married a prominent Chicago neurosurgeon, Loyal Davis. Almost overnight, she entered a world of privilege. In 1949, when she was mistakenly included on a list of Hollywood Communists, Nancy sought Ronald Reagan's help to clear her name. They were married in a private ceremony in 1952. Seven months later, Patti was born. WOMAN: My parents have about as close a relationship as I've ever seen anyone have. They... they really, sort of, complete... complete each other. They're kind of two halves of a circle. RON REAGAN: He's a guy who's almost impossible to dislike, who always thinks the best of people; can't believe that anybody who's, you know, ever met him would ever want to do anything bad to him; would ever want to go behind his back; would ever want to stab him in the back. Um... that's just not within his realm of thinking. He just can't conceive of it. Nancy, on the other hand, is far more cunning about that sort of stuff. She has no trouble understanding stabbing in the back. The best way to describe their relationship politically was that, you know, he was the C.E.O., he was the boss, and she was the personnel director. As they went through life, there was always... Nancy had to take a look at you. She would research you, she'd find out about you. So she spent all her time looking for people that would serve her man well. NARRATOR: With Nancy as his partner, Reagan resumed his life. As president of the Screen Actors Guild, he earned a reputation as a tough and skillful negotiator, battling studios and producers. But as an actor, he was failing. In the early '50s, he was cast in unmemorable roles; in unmemorable films, like "Cattle Queen of Montana..." Do you know where McCord's turning him over to Natchacoa? Once Natchacoa gets his hands on him, this whole territory will be on fire before night. (chimp whimpering) NARRATOR: ...opposite a chimpanzee in "Bedtime for Bonzo." "Hellcats of the Navy," with Nancy, was a flop. WOMAN: It was a very bad time, and he was, um... I mean, he was about as low as he could get at that point. He couldn't understand why a career that he loved so much and felt that he had been good to and at was slipping through his fingers. NARRATOR: Reagan took a job at the Last Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas, singing and dancing in a third-rate vaudeville show. WOMAN: He rolled with it, but it... but it hurt, of course, when the career dried up. Of course it hurt. It would anybody. But he... again we get back to the deep belief that everything happens for a reason, um... and that whatever happened to him, there was a reason for it. NARRATOR: Reagan was rescued from obscurity when General Electric signed him to host a weekly television series, "G.E. Theater," at an annual salary of $125,000. ANNOUNCER: ...In engineering, in manufacturing skill, at General Electric... NARRATOR: Every Sunday evening, Ronald Reagan visited Americans in their living rooms. Our play tonight is about a home away from home-- a problem facing one of our military families on occupation duty overseas. Now, to Colonel Wheeler, a doctor in the regular army, home is wherever he is quartered at the convenience of the government. NARRATOR: His role as celebrity spokesman took him to G.E. plants across the country. After 17 years in Hollywood, Reagan was reacquainting himself with America. CANNON: G.E. was perfect for him, and the reason it was was, he was able to get out on the road and talk to people, at a long distance from anybody else, speeches that were rarely covered, and if covered at all, were covered in a hometown newspaper, and there were... no national coverage and he was able... he was free to make mistakes. It was a kind of apprenticeship that isn't there for most people and he made the most of it. NARRATOR: Initially, Reagan regaled his listeners with anecdotes about Hollywood and his fight against Communists. But soon his speeches broadened to include other concerns. CANNON: This was a company that was basically a middle-class company. Most of the workers identified with the middle class, and a lot of them identified with the concerns of management that there were too many restrictions on them. NARRATOR: Reagan picked up on the grumblings of G.E. executives and employees angry about government intrusion and rising taxes. "I realized the enemy was big government," he later wrote. Reagan had found his political mission. He would fight Communism and big government. He delivered his message with evangelical zeal across the nation. After eight years on the G.E. circuit, Reagan emerged as a recognized conservative spokesman. ♪ ♪ Now a wealthy man, he was able to provide for his family "the California dream." RON REAGAN: He's always wanted a ranch and almost always had one. That would probably be the place where all of us probably spent the most time with him. You know, he made sure we all had horses at a relatively early age. DAVIS: I have a lot of happy memories with my father when I was younger. And I was... I tried to keep up with him athletically because that was, um... well, I mean, it was something I loved, but it was also a way to spend time with him. Both my brother and I learned to swim probably before we could walk. My father, having been a lifeguard, believed that you just learned to swim and then you are not ever going to get into trouble. RON REAGAN: So he made sure that we had swimming lessons and he also used to test us every once in a while-- you know, throw us just to see that we could react quickly and, you know, not panic and, you know, be able to find the side. And he would play with us in the pool and we'd ride on his back, and all that kind of stuff. ♪ ♪ DAVIS: He used to give birthday parties for either me or Ron, out at the ranch and hire a man who had this trick horse or who could count with his hooves or something, I don't know. RON REAGAN: The fact that there was this horse... there was always the same guy with the same horse and the same dog; the same Dalmatian and the same pinto pony birthday party after birthday party at the Malibu ranch. Whether it was Patti or me, there he'd be. DAVIS: It was sort of that Ozzie and Harriet kind of home. No family is entirely harmonious. I mean, Ozzie and Harriet weren't harmonious in real life, either, so, of course, it's not... of course not. But that's what we wanted to think families were in the '50s. We were conscious, I think, growing up, all of us-- and I know I was-- that there were really two sets of people, two definite and distinct sets of people involved in the family. There was my mother and father, and there was everybody else, and that, while we were all part of the family, when push came to shove, there was a distinction to be made; that, you know, well, it really wasn't anything like... it wasn't like, you know, seen and... be seen and not heard, but it was... you know, we were expected to, uh... we were expected to put ourselves in second place to whatever they were doing. MAN: Ladies and gentlemen, we take pride in presenting a thoughtful address by Ronald Reagan. Mr. Reagan. (applause) REAGAN: Thank you. Thank you very much. NARRATOR: Reagan burst onto the national political scene in 1964 with a televised address on behalf of conservative Republican candidate Barry Goldwater. REAGAN: I have spent most of my life as a Democrat. I recently have seen fit to follow another course. NARRATOR: President Lyndon Johnson had just declared his war on poverty, expanding the role of government. MORRIS: "The Speech," as it's known amongst Reaganauts, that was the culmination of, the quintessence of, all his speeches honed on the G.E. circuit. All the catchphrases that he'd found worked well, all the ideology that he'd polished during his years as a G.E. corporate spokesman and emerging political orator, they all came together at this moment. This is the issue of this election: whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. NARRATOR: "Time" magazine called the speech "the one bright spot in a dismal campaign." Although it could not rescue Goldwater from defeat, it placed Reagan on the cutting edge of conservative politics. There was still a big-government ground swell among the liberal elements, and certainly the idea of conservatism as we know it today was not something that politicians embraced very eagerly, nor did the voting public. So, in that sense, Ronald Reagan was ahead of his time. NARRATOR: Reagan's maverick attack on big government brought him to the attention of California entrepreneurs who were searching for a candidate to run for governor in 1966. "That speech," Reagan remembered, "led me onto a path I never expected to take." REAGAN: I've come to a decision that even a short time ago I would have thought impossible for me to make. And yet I make it with no lingering doubts or hesitation. As of now, I am a candidate seeking the Republican nomination for governor. California in the 1960s is a society that is going through tumultuous change. He runs in 1966 as a staunch Goldwater conservative who will restore to the people their autonomy and freedom from government, and it strikes resonant chords with millions of people in California who were bothered by the welfare system, bothered by the high taxes, bothered by the radicalism of the students, bothered by the crime in the streets, bothered by the inner-city explosions. And on all those counts he was very effective in appealing to the mass of suburban voters in California. ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: Democratic governor Pat Brown underestimated Reagan and the revolt brewing in his state. (cheering) What have my opponent's contributions been to this growing, thriving state of ours? He's divided his time between propaganda pictures against everything from Medicare to the Tennessee Valley Authority, and starring in such unforgettable screen epics as "Bedtime for Bonzo." They looked at Ronald Reagan, that dumb actor, and they said, "Oh man, this is the guy we want to run against. "He has no political experience, he's not going to be able to handle himself well." So we devised a technique where he would give his 20-minute speech. And, incidentally, Ronald Reagan wrote all his own speeches when he ran for governor in 1966. He'd give the 20-minute speech, and we'd open it to 20 minutes of Q&A to the people there at the meeting or the press, and if he could handle those questions, we felt we could get over the hump of "Here's an empty person "who doesn't know anything about government or doesn't have any real ideas." MAN: Ronnie, here do you stand on the death penalty? You've just expressed a question which is also as much on the minds of the people in the state as Berkeley. This, too, is a question asked all over the state. And as I've answered to those other people, I would tell you I think all of us have wavered back and forth on this issue because of our Judeo-Christian background, our questioning as to our right to take human life. But I believe that we have the right to take human life in defense of our own. MAN: Do you discount the fact that many women may be influenced by the fact that you are a movie star-- you're handsome and young and that sort of thing? Well, now, you can't have it both ways. Some of the people on the other side have been suggesting that before I became a candidate, that I wasn't very acceptable as a movie star, that, uh... so, no, I do believe that the people are aware of the issues... CANNON: Here Reagan is, he's answering questions. And I came back and I called my editor and he said, "What did you think of him?" And I said, "I don't know." I said, "I don't know why these... "why anybody would want to run against this guy. "Why would you want to run against somebody "who everybody knows and likes and who is... who is friendly and popular?" NARRATOR: As Reagan gained exposure, his aides began to shape his image. NOFZIGER: A political reporter for KPIX in San Francisco said, "I want to do an interview with Reagan on horseback." And I said, "That's a great idea. That really humanizes him." And so... and he had a ranch out in Malibu Canyon, oh, about 25 miles from downtown Los Angeles. So we went out there and he came out wearing jodhpurs. And I said, "What in the hell are you doing in those jodhpurs?" "Well," he said, "that's how I always ride around here," very huffily. And I said, "Ron, we're trying to win an election here, you know. "People in California, as they see you in those jodhpurs are going to think you're an Eastern sissy." He says, "Well, this is what you wear when you're jumping horses." I said, "We're not jumping horses; we're going for a ride. "She wants you to be a cowboy. "I want you to be a cowboy because that's what the people here will identify with." So he said, "Well, all right." So he went back in and changed into jeans and boots. NARRATOR: Reagan would come to embody the great myth of the American West: the independent cowboy standing tall. DALLEK: It fits into this whole image of him as a kind of tough-minded heroic figure, someone who is coming to their rescue. And they see him as an honest man. They see him as an honest politician, as someone who speaks his mind. (cheering) Thank you very much! (applause) This small minority of beatniks and malcontents and filthy-speech advocates have interfered with the primary purpose of that university and they've brought shame on a great university, a university of which you and I have a right to be very proud and which for many years we have been very proud. The people of this state are entitled to an open hearing to reveal what has been taking place and to fix responsibility. SMITH: There was a sense that traditional values, traditional institutions were being challenged, and so people took a chance and they voted on a Hollywood movie actor against an established and relatively popular incumbent governor. CHOIR: ♪ O beautiful for spacious skies ♪ ♪ For amber waves of grain ♪ ♪ For purple mountains... ♪ NARRATOR: On January 2, 1967, Ronald Reagan took the oath of office as governor of the State of California. He had not only beaten Brown, he had beaten him by one million votes. I do. MAN: That you take this obligation freely, without mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that you will well and faithfully discharge... DAVIS: I was hysterical when I found out that my father had been elected governor. The Vietnam War was going on. Um... Berkeley was going on. The, you know, the one place I wanted to be, if I hadn't been 14 years old and at a boarding school in Arizona, was on the streets of Haight-Ashbury, braiding flowers into my hair. I mean, this was my goal in life. And now my father was governor of California. So this was... this was... I just didn't think it was a good image for me, you know? ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: Patti was not the only Reagan facing an image problem. Her mother drew the attention of the press when she refused to live in the governor's Victorian mansion, an historic landmark. NANCY REAGAN: I have to translate everything into being the mother of an eight-year-old. You are right on a busy corner. I love old houses. I'll start with that. And I love old things and I love tradition. I don't think there has been a governor with an eight-year-old child before. NARRATOR: Nancy moved her family to an exclusive Sacramento suburb, becoming the target of criticism. She was devastated when writer Joan Didion called her actress smile, "a study in frozen insincerity." The governor, too, raised a few eyebrows with his talk about Biblical prophecy. The Reverend Billy Graham had stirred Reagan's interest when he told him that Judgment Day was near. Reagan would repeat Graham's warning, adding, "For the first time ever, everything is in place for the battle of Armageddon." One sign was what he called "the Communist takeover of Libya." With no experience, Reagan faced the task of governing the State of California. When a reporter asked what kind of a governor he would make, he quipped, "I don't know. I never played governor." CANNON: He faced an enormous challenge because Reagan really didn't know anything about... about politics or governance, and he had a lot of people around him who arguably knew even less. I mean, I remember Lyn Nofziger once said, "You know, we weren't just amateurs, we were novice amateurs." NARRATOR: Reagan's first decision, designed to reduce the size of government, proved a disaster. He decides that, in his naïveté about running state government, that you could just do a ten percent across-the-board cut and that would be easy to accomplish. Well, he found out that it was not easy to accomplish and that it probably wasn't equitable. NARRATOR: Announced at a time of growing campus unrest, the cuts pitted the governor against students at the University of California. They would be required to pay tuition for the first time. Let 'em throw, let 'em throw, but I'm going to get out. I don't care, just so it's outside. Okay, now. POLICEMAN: Little more... more. NARRATOR: After years of playing the hero, Reagan found himself cast as the villain. We were down at the University of California campus in Santa Barbara, and all of the students were all mad at him. We'd come back from lunch to go back to where they were having the meeting and the students just kind of lined up along the pathway and they all gave him the silent treatment, you know, and nobody said hello, nobody waved, nobody did anything. They just stood and stared at him. So he walked through this gauntlet of people very nonchalantly, got up to the doorway where we were going, turned around and he said, "Shh." Everybody broke out laughing and he walked on in. NARRATOR: Reagan struck a chord with Americans nationwide who were becoming fed up with the radical '60s. I saw him make a speech in 1964 for Goldwater. I said there's the man that should be running for president and there's the man we need for president. I like the way he takes a firm stand on things and the way he goes about them. I think his views agree with mine. He has the same type of feeling with the people that John Kennedy had, I think. He's the hope of America. ♪ Ronald Reagan, he's the one ♪ ♪ He's the one to beat ♪ ♪ Because he's the leader of the G.O.P. ♪ ♪ To pick up the victory ♪ ♪ Ronald Reagan, he's just begun ♪ ♪ He's still our favorite son ♪ ♪ And the name will hit ya ♪ ♪ I bet ya, I bet ya ♪ ♪ It's Ronald Reagan! ♪ (cheering, applause) NARRATOR: A Reagan draft initiative caught fire. When the Republicans gathered in Miami in 1968, Reagan, after only 18 months in elected office, was the choice for president among conservatives. By then, former vice president Richard Nixon had a lock on the nomination. I hereby proudly move on behalf of my fellow Californians that this convention declare itself as unanimously and united behind the candidate Richard Nixon as the next president of the United States, and I so move. (applause, horns blaring) NOFZIGER: Reagan was not upset. He told me, "Lyn, I just didn't think I was ready for it." So, you know, he knew himself very well and he... obviously, he'd have taken it if there been this great demand for him, but... but he knew that he would be better off waiting. CROWD (chanting): On strike! On strike! On strike! On strike! NARRATOR: Reagan returned to California to face the first true crisis of his governorship. The student revolt, which had begun in 1964, reached its climax at Berkeley in the spring of 1969. The university was paralyzed by a student strike, which was joined by members of the Black Panther Party and even some professors. MORRIS: There was a spellbinding moment when he was governor, confronting a bunch of Berkeley university profs. He suddenly recognizes in their midst a radical from his Hollywood days. His name was, I think, Popski. And he said, "You, Popski, I know you and I know what you stand for." Lost his cool. There was a direct connection there-- the anarchy that prevailed on the Berkeley campus in 1969 with the anarchy that he saw immediately after World War II outside the gates of Warner Brothers. ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: When the police failed to break the strike, Reagan sent in the California Highway Patrol. That only heightened tensions. REAGAN: I believe that where any group's rights are being imposed upon or any individual's rights, by any others, it is the obligation of government to protect those constitutional rights at the point of bayonet if necessary. NARRATOR: The National Guard descended on Berkeley replete with bayonets. It occupied the city for 17 days. Most Californians regarded Reagan as a hero for restoring the peace at Berkeley. Others felt he had acted as a trigger-happy extremist. (chattering indistinctly) The following year, Reagan ran for re-election with little to show for his first term. He had promised to lower taxes, but they had increased, and he had failed to curb the growth of government. The other way around. The other way around. Some of the things they've said about me and education, this may get you expelled. NARRATOR: Reagan won in November and launched a new initiative to cut back government spending. Welfare is the biggest single outlay of public funds at three different levels of government: federal, state, and county. And welfare is adrift, without rudder or compass. NARRATOR: In his first term, Reagan had governed through confrontation. Now he needed to collaborate with the Democratic-controlled assembly if he wanted his welfare bill to pass. Reagan was beginning to think about his own legacy. He was beginning to think about the accomplishments that he would be looked back on when he left the governorship, and I'm sure that people would argue that Reagan was also beginning to build or try to build a record to run for president on for a second time. NARRATOR: The bill passed. Reagan saved taxpayers $2 billion and learned an important lesson. MAN: He proved to himself that he could make some changes, that he could not only talk about and move people to get things done, but he could actually move the mechanics of government to get things done. And I think that confidence that it gave Reagan was more important than most people realize. MEESE: And so when he left, he left with a kind of a ground swell of approval in the state and a great deal of interest throughout the country among many people, that he go on and perhaps run for the presidency in the future. Now, wait a minute, wait a minute. You're all asking the same question and you're all going to get the same answer, so we might as well do it once, instead of... No, I've made no change whatsoever. I have said repeatedly, and I repeat again, I have a decision to make. I don't know what that decision will be. When the time comes, I will announce it, yes or no, and I assume that that will be sometime before the end of this year. That summer, I had had everybody over to my house for dinner and we were playing charades, and, um... I've forgotten exactly how it happened, but I guess it was a book title, and my father was the one doing it, and he... and finally he just stood there and just went... like this, you know, like, "It's me" and we all screamed, "'Making of a President!'" NARRATOR: In his bid for the 1976 Republican nomination, Reagan faced enormous odds. He was taking on President Gerald Ford and his own Republican Party. He lost to Ford in New Hampshire and kept on losing. MAN: I think that... that is a point in time, at least in my mind, when you really saw the essence of Reagan's character in its full flower. At that time, if I recall correctly, the campaign was basically considered dead in the water. He had just lost five straight presidential primaries to President Ford, and maybe most importantly, we were about $2 million in debt. REPORTER: Does it change significantly any of the political plans of yours? No, not a bit. I'm going to run as hard as I can, and figure I'm behind. And the question was, "Should we quit?" And I think the general attitude was, it's not "Should we?" It's "Do we have any choice?" We had this discussion, and the consensus was, "Certainly, you have to quit." Reagan was just sitting there, listening to this. And "I'm telling you right now"-- and he was looking at everybody in the room-- "that I am going to run in every single primary from here to the convention even if I lose every single one." NARRATOR: Reagan searched for an issue to ignite his campaign. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm deeply concerned about our defense posture. Despite the assurances of Dr. Kissinger and Mr. Ford, the United States is no longer the first military power on Earth. The Soviet army is now twice the size of ours. Russia's annual investment in weapons, strategic and conventional, now runs some 50% ahead of ours. Under Kissinger and Ford, this nation has become number two in military power in a world where it's dangerous, if not fatal, to be second-best. NARRATOR: Televised repeatedly on the eve of the North Carolina primary, Reagan's warning of a new Communist menace brought him his first victory. As the primaries moved to the more conservative South and West, the campaign gained momentum. REAGAN: We are ahead of our projections at this time-- where we thought we would be, and many people say, "Well, you know, is that just whistling past the graveyard or something?" No, we're ahead to the extent that recently for the first time I said I believed that there was a very great possibility, if not probability, that I could go to the convention with enough delegates in advance to win on the first ballot. (cheering, horns blaring) DEAVER: After winning some of those primaries, none of us ever thought that it was out of our reach. Something would happen that would turn that convention. And I think Reagan believed that. Madame Chairman, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, home of the Phillies and the Pirates... (individuals cheering) casts ten... casts ten votes for Governor Reagan and 93 votes for Gerald Ford. (cheering) ANNOUNCER: 20 votes for Gerald R. Ford. (cheering, horns blaring) RON REAGAN: Ford had given his acceptance speech and he then turned to the sky box, where we were, where my father was, and... and sort of beckoned my father to come down. I think he was conscious of the fact that nearly 50% of the people in the hall, maybe even more, really would have preferred Ronald Reagan to be the candidate. (cheering continues) NANCY REAGAN: The response of those delegates was something unbelievable, just unbelievable. And there we were in this box way back in the back, and we stood, and he kept doing this to them, to tell them to sit down, and they never would sit down. They wouldn't stop yelling... and yelling for him, and "Speech, speech." I just hoped that... that... that Ronnie had something that he wanted to say, because he said to me, as we were running-- we didn't expect to... to be up on the stage-- and as we were running to get there, he said, "I haven't the foggiest idea of what I'm going to say." If I could just take a moment... I had an assignment the other day. Someone asked me to write a letter for a time capsule that is going to be opened in Los Angeles 100 years from now. We live in a world in which the great powers have poised and aimed at each other horrible missiles of destruction, nuclear weapons that can in a matter of minutes arrive in each other's country and destroy virtually the civilized world we live in. And suddenly it dawned on me, those who would read this letter 100 years from now will know whether those missiles were fired. They will know whether we met our challenge. Whether they have the freedoms that we have known up until now will depend on what we do here... Mr. President... (wild cheering) REAGAN: Thank you, thank you. (wild cheering and applause) MORRIS: And the power of that speech was extraordinary, and you can just feel, throughout the auditorium, the palpable sense among the delegates that "We've nominated the wrong guy." (wild cheering, horns blaring) NARRATOR: The next day, Reagan bid farewell to his campaign staff. Sure, there's a disappointment in what happened, but the cause... the cause goes on, and... (audience cheering) Don't get cynical. Uh... don't get cynical, because look at yourselves and what you were willing to do, and recognize that there are millions and millions of Americans out there that want what you want, that want it to be that way, that... want it to be a shining city on a hill. (applause) ANDERSON: On the plane going back, I went over, I had a convention ticket, and I asked him if he could sign it as a souvenir. And what he wrote was, "We fought, we dreamed, and the dream is still with us." And looking back on it now... He never gave up, he just kept right on going. It was... it was, you know, this incredible, crushing defeat and it didn't crush him. He just came back up, shook his head and said, "Okay, what's next?" And that began the campaign for the year 1980. ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: Reagan retreated to his new ranch in the mountains high above Santa Barbara: Rancho del Cielo, "The Ranch in the Sky." RON REAGAN: It was a place where he could renew himself and rejuvenate himself. And he would go out, you know, for hours at a time. He'd just sort of disappear up into the hills and into the brush, sometimes with a chainsaw. You know, he was just happy as a clam out there, doing his ranch thing. MAN: His form of relaxation was very hard physical labor. He was not a type of man to relax. We started building fences. It's been over the course of quite a few years, because he actually built the fences or designed the fences out of telephone poles. He designed it so when you looked at the fence, everything was uniform. We started to just do it around the house, but then when we finished with that and we sat back and looked at it, "Well, wouldn't it look nice if we went around the pond?" Well, we went around the pond, then we created a pasture-- "Well, the pasture needs fencing," you know, so we went around the pasture, then we built an orchard and, "Well, you know, we should probably continue the fence around the orchard." So... these fences are not going anywhere. NARRATOR: Reagan was killing time, waiting while America ripened toward his conservative message. "People were rebelling," he observed, "a prairie fire was spreading across the land." SMITH: Just stop and think what this country had been through by 1980-- we had been through the Vietnam War, we'd been through Watergate, we'd seen one president after another tarnished by scandal, by failure, by an assassin's bullet. By 1980, we were pretty cynical. By 1980, we had just been through a couple of years of double-digit inflation. We'd seen the Soviet Union seemingly on the march around the world, most notably in Afghanistan. NARRATOR: Reagan ran for president on a conservative platform of less government and stronger defense, promising to restore America's greatness. My fellow citizens of this great nation, with a deep awareness of the responsibility conferred by your trust, I accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States. (people cheering, horns blaring) They say that the United States has had its day in the sun, that our nation has passed its zenith. They expect you to tell your children that the American people no longer have the will to cope with their problems, that the future will be one of sacrifice and few opportunities. My fellow citizens, I utterly reject that view. MAUREEN REAGAN: He was so unhappy about what was happening to the country-- the fact that people didn't believe in themselves, they didn't believe that they could make things better, that America was a nation in decline, all of those things. And he knew in his heart those things were not true. And he believed that, as president, he could make the American people look inside themselves and recreate what they needed to have their own American dream. I think he felt sincerely in his heart that he was rescuing the United States from a period of poisonous self-doubt, loss of direction... loss of belief in itself. I think he felt, in the late 1970s, that he could rescue Jimmy Carter's America and carry her back to the shore and make her alive again. (people cheering and applauding) NARRATOR: Reagan kicked off his fall campaign in Jersey City with a great American symbol as a backdrop. He addressed a blue-collar, ethnic audience, appealing to their patriotism and to their growing sense of insecurity. REAGAN: Let it show on the record that when the American people cried out for economic help, Jimmy Carter took refuge behind a dictionary. Well... if it's a definition, if it's a definition he wants, I'll give him one: A recession is when your neighbor loses his job; a depression is when you lose yours... (applause) ...and recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his. Most people don't remember now, but that was probably the worst economic situation the United States had been in since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Inflation was roaring, interest rates were going up, people couldn't afford to buy homes. A lot of people remember very clearly, if they were old enough to drive a car then-- you couldn't buy gasoline, no matter how much money you had. (crowd chanting) ANDERSON: We had a hostage crisis in Iran. People were getting worried. NARRATOR: 52 American diplomats had been held hostage in Iran for a year. They were a daily reminder of America's impotence and a political liability for Jimmy Carter. I believe that this administration's foreign policy helped create the entire situation that made their kidnap possible, and I think the fact that they've been there that long is a humiliation and a disgrace to this country. NARRATOR: Every day the American hostages remained in captivity, Carter's prospects for re-election dimmed. Earlier this evening, I spoke on the phone with President Carter. He called, John Anderson called, but the president pledged the utmost in cooperation in the transition that will take place. (crowd cheering) All I can say to all of you is thank you... and thank you for more than just George Bush and myself-- thank you because if the trend continues, we may very well control one house of the Congress for the first time in a quarter of a century. (wild cheering and applause) NARRATOR: The Republicans did gain control of the Senate. Reagan beat Carter in a landslide, carrying 44 states. It was a great victory for Reagan and the conservative movement. REAGAN: I, Ronald Reagan, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States. (cannons firing) NARRATOR: When Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, expectations were low. At a time when America faced an economic crisis and an escalating Cold War, many wondered if anyone could manage the country, least of all a former Hollywood B-actor. MAN: ♪ You went away and my heart went with you... ♪ NARRATOR: "Things could go very badly in the first year"-- Reagan's staff had warned-- "resulting in an erosion of Republican momentum and public confidence." MAN: ♪ ...my every prayer ♪ ♪ If there is some other way to show that we love you ♪ ♪ I swear we don't know how. ♪ NARRATOR: But Reagan projected great assurance. He believed-- like Franklin Delano Roosevelt 50 years before him-- that his mission was to restore America's trust in itself. It is time for us to realize that we are too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. We're not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do; I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing. SMITH: He and Franklin Roosevelt have so much in common-- they're both great communicators, they're both buoyant optimists and they both came to Washington in periods of great economic distress, but there's a major, major difference apart from one being a liberal, one being a conservative. F.D.R. was a great improviser-- he made up the New Deal almost day by day. Reagan came to office with a very fixed set of beliefs and an agenda to try and implement those beliefs. Ronald Reagan had a few very simple precepts-- government was too big, taxed too much, and the Soviet Union was getting away with murder internationally. "You guys work out the details." NARRATOR: The key guys in the Reagan White House were Chief of Staff James Baker, who knew how Washington worked, and Edwin Meese and Michael Deaver, who knew, from Sacramento, how Reagan worked. Deaver had another assignment: the first lady. To this troika Reagan delegated unprecedented authority. ANDERSON: In some ways he governed like a Turkish pasha. He assembled people around him, brought people in, talked to them, made it clear to them what he wanted to do, and then the attitude seemed to be, "Okay, now you know what I want to do, let's do it." And he just assumed that these things would be done. NARRATOR: The future would expose the weakness of Reagan's propensity to delegate, but for most of his first term, the troika served him well. MAN: The Carter administration had made a terrible mistake by sending up so much legislation in their first hundred days that the focus became very diffused. We didn't make that mistake. I said, "Look, our 100-day plan says we are to have "three priorities, and those three priorities "are economic recovery, economic recovery and economic recovery, "and that's what we ought to focus on for the first 100 days and carry out our plan." NARRATOR: It would come to be known as "the Reagan Revolution." On its surface it was simple: a tax cut, reductions in domestic spending, and a balanced budget. But Reagan also wanted a military buildup to confront the Soviet Union. I have to say that I am not one to shrink from a tough task, but I must also say, and I think every cabinet member here will agree with me, that the goals that you gave us are extraordinarily difficult to reconcile, but I'm... NARRATOR: Budget Director David Stockman warned Reagan that without deep cuts, budget deficits could rise as high as $100 billion, but Reagan was convinced that his tax cut would stimulate productivity and ignite an economic boom. The government would then collect enough taxes to balance the budget. It was called supply-side economics, and even prominent Republicans were skeptical. MAN: I came out of a meeting with the president when he had described his economic program, which entailed pretty good-sized tax cuts, and... and I was asked by the gaggle of reporters outside the northwest entrance to the west wing of the Capitol what I thought of it, and I uttered the words that probably should go at the very top of the list of things I never should have said. I said, "Well, altogether, it's a riverboat gamble." And it was. It's time to recognize that we've come to a turning point. We're threatened with an economic calamity of tremendous proportions, and the old business-as-usual treatment can't save us. Together we must chart a different course. On February 18, I will present in detail an economic program to Congress. It will propose budget cuts in virtually every department of government. NARRATOR: The cuts fell most dramatically on programs designed to help the poor. "I'm trying to undo L.B.J. 's Great Society," Reagan wrote in his diary. "It was his war on poverty that led us to this mess." Reagan also called for a 30% tax cut across the board. All taxpayers would benefit, but the wealthy would benefit the most. Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill vowed to fight. Reagan's program, he said, "soaked the poor to subsidize the rich." O'NEILL: He and I don't agree on his plan whatsoever. I believe in the plan of fairness. Very easy to put the question, the question is this: Do you make over $50,000 or less than $50,000? If you make over $50,000, then you're for the Republican plan, because that's who it's geared for. Just meet with the leadership and talk about our problems. NARRATOR: Reagan faced a formidable task. For his economic package to become law, he would need to convince 26 of O'Neill's Democrats to break rank. In the first 100 days of his presidency, Reagan met with 467 legislators and phoned many more. Once, he called 29 members of Congress in a single night. BAKER: He never once moaned about having to make a congressional call, because President Reagan understood that we judge our presidents on the basis primarily of their success in getting their programs through the legislative branch. We would give him a script for each of these congressional calls, and he never, he never missed it. He was an extraordinarily hard worker. MAN: Most of America thought that he was someone who watched television and went to bed. He didn't. Every single night he would do a stack of work. And he would almost obsessively go through every single bit of paper he would get. Indeed, the first lady early on complained that I was keeping him up too late at night, but the "too late" was 2:30 in the morning. NARRATOR: In his effort to sell his program, Reagan's best weapon was his power of persuasion. MAUREEN REAGAN: He had the ability to project out of himself-- that's what actors do. They make you feel happy or sad. They make you laugh and cry. They make you feel all of the emotions. And so when you're in politics and you want to get a message across to people, you have to be able to... to go in front of yourself and to project out to those people. All you wanted to do was fix the camera on his head and let him talk. You didn't need him to walk around the desk and sit on the corner and do all of those things that people have to do to make politicians interesting. He was able to speak in ways that the American people believed and in a language that they understood. He vocalized their frustrations and hopes and fears and gave them a vision. During recent months, many of you have asked, what can you do to help make America strong again. I urge you again to contact your senators and congressmen. Tell them of your support for this bipartisan proposal. Tell them you believe this is an unequaled opportunity to help return America to prosperity and make government again the servant of the people. He would make a speech-- televised national address-- and say, "Call your congressman, call your senator, help me out. Here's what I want to do." And, boy, the calls would flood the wh... would flood the congressional switchboards. It was very, very effective. NARRATOR: With every appeal, Reagan's conservative agenda gained momentum. By March, two-thirds of Americans favored the president's program, especially the tax cut. "Sometimes I have to pinch myself to see if this is real," said Deaver. "So do I," Reagan replied with a smile. On March 30, 70 days into his presidency, Reagan delivered yet another pitch, to a union convention at the Washington Hilton hotel. (Reagan speaking inaudibly) At 2:25, he left the meeting and approached his limousine. (gunshots) DEAVER: I ran to the car behind the limousine. I thought we were going to the White House. We started going over dividers on Connecticut Avenue and realized when we came into the porte-cochère at George Washington Hospital, that we were going there. I jumped out of the car, and Reagan's getting out of the car, and he always had this thing where he would pull his pants up to be sure they were just right, button his coat again, which he did when he got out of the limousine. And I thought, "He's fine," walked into the hospital. The minute he hit the door, he went down. NANCY REAGAN: When I got there, everybody's still telling me, "He hasn't been shot, he hasn't been hit." Um... and I think it was Mike Deaver who was standing waiting for me, and I think he was the one who told me that he'd been hit. NARRATOR: A deranged lone gunman, John Hinckley, Jr., had fired six bullets at the president. One ricocheted off Reagan's limousine and tore into his left lung, missing his heart by an inch. DAVIS: I was afraid that he would die and that he would die without me really knowing who my father was. I knew how close to death he was once I got to Washington. The country didn't know until years later. He was so white. I had never seen anybody so white, and he had that thing over his face to help him breathe, and there was blood. And, uh... he opened his eyes and saw me... and, um... that's when he said, "Honey, I forgot to duck." NARRATOR: Reports of Reagan's courage reassured an anxious nation. DEAVER: That was that moment when we really saw inside the man. We really saw what he was made of, to be able to have that grace and that humor at that particular time in his life. The quips to the doctors about... "I hope you're all Republicans" and all that kind of stuff, and "Honey, I forgot to duck," that wasn't some invention of somebody. He was actually doing that. And probably going through his mind is, "Gee, I hope I'm not putting these people out." REPORTER 1: How are you feeling, Mr. President? Great... great. REPORTER 2: What are you going to do when you get home, Mr. President? What? What are you going to do when you get home? Sit down. (laughter) NARRATOR: Reagan returned to the White House 12 days after being shot. Only those closest to him knew how transforming his near-death experience had been. SMITH: I think it confirmed everything he'd ever been taught, beginning by his mother, about God's plan for him as an individual. Mother Teresa came to the White House with no fanfare not long after the assassination attempt and met privately with the president, and at the end of the meeting, she told the president that God had a plan for him and that God had intended for him to suffer. MORRIS: That was when he decided that the life which he'd been spared was now going to have to be put to the service of the God who had saved him. He became much more devout and evangelical from that moment on. His thoughts became slower. His speech became slower. He deliberated more. He hesitated more when he spoke. He lost his quickness. And for the rest of the presidency, it was a very, very slow and steady mental and physical decline. MAN: Mrs. Reagan never recovered. Mrs. Reagan was horrified. And she gave immediate instructions to Michael Deaver, who was her contact in the chief of staff's office, words to the effect, "This will never happen again-- you see to it." And they saw to it. He never walked across an airport tarmac. He never worked a fence line. He never got out of his limousine on a public sidewalk. But it began to close down the presidency even more from the standpoint of access to the average citizen-- the average voter in this country. CANNON: It took Reagan out of most of the routine of being president. In a sense, it aborted the inner life of the presidency-- put the Reagan presidency on this track where Reagan was more distanced than he should have been from decision-making. (cheering and applause) NARRATOR: An April 28, four weeks after the attempt on his life, a barely recovered Reagan received a hero's welcome from Congress. (inaudible over applause) REAGAN: Thank you. Thank you. You wouldn't want to talk me into an encore, would you? (laughter) Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, distinguished members of the Congress, honored guests, and fellow citizens, I have no words to express my appreciation for that greeting. (applause) I have come to speak to you tonight about our economic recovery program and why I believe it's essential that the Congress approve this package. MAN: There he was, almost Lazarus-like, standing before the Congress. Here's a guy who had survived a very deadly shot of an assassin, and to come back with such élan and to ask for support was big stuff. I mean you're talking about Hollywood drama here. He played it for all it was worth, and he should have. And I think that that's when he probably ran his vote up over the top. On this vote, the ayes are 238, the nays are 195, and under the rules... NARRATOR: The Senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of his economic package. In the House, Reagan had convinced enough Democrats to break rank. He rejoiced in what he called "the greatest political win in half a century." O'NEILL: Mr. President, congratulations. You're a tough adversary. No hard feelings, old pal. It's a great two-party system we have. We gave our best, and you outdid us. As a matter of fact, you stunned us. I never figured you could beat us that badly. You're a little stunned yourself. Well, listen, I want to wish you all the success in the world. The fiscal policy of the nation now belongs to you. You've got two clear-cut victories up here. ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: On August 13, 1981, Reagan headed for his Ranch in the Sky to sign the bill which would turn his conservative agenda into law. DARMAN: It was perfect for the imagery of the Western, romantic, American tradition. It's symbolically an ideal place to start the ratification of step one of the Reagan Revolution. And so, it was a well-chosen set, at least in concept. In reality, the particular day turned out to be one where you couldn't see much of anything. There was this tremendous fog that poured in. You could hardly see the president when he came out to sign the bill. Yes, the thought did cross my mind that maybe we were all doing something in a fog-- that is, without as clear a vision as we should have had of what we were up to. NARRATOR: The bill Reagan signed that day did not include a balanced budget. Without further cuts, the United States would face the largest deficit in its history. REPORTER: How much more in budget cuts are you going to have to make over the next couple of years, and will you still be able to balance the budget in '84? Well, this has always been our goal and will continue to be our goal, but remember that we always said that there were further budget cuts for the coming years, for '83 and '84. NARRATOR: That fall, budget director David Stockman told Reagan he would have to cut deep into defense spending-- the keystone of his anti-Soviet policy-- and Social Security if he wanted a balanced budget. DARMAN: When he was presented with the question of whether he would reduce the rate of growth of defense, he decided not to and concluded that though he didn't want the deficit, he... the country would tolerate it if the economy were strong. He always phrased it this way: If it were a question of balancing the budget or regaining strong military capabilities, he'd always opt for the latter. And he never, never wavered in that. He had a chance to tackle entitlements, he had a chance to break Social Security costs, and he wasn't willing to do it because he would have forfeited his most precious asset-- his popularity-- to do it. And he wasn't willing to do that. NARRATOR: Those were fateful decisions. Reagan would never again have as good an opportunity to adjust his budget and avoid the ballooning deficits of the decade ahead. That year, the economy took a downward turn. By November, blue-collar workers who had voted for Ronald Reagan were losing their jobs. Inflation had prompted the Federal Reserve Board to increase interest rates. Reagan was forced to admit that the nation was headed into a recession. REPORTER: Mr. President, your secretary of the treasury, Donald Regan, yesterday gave a rather pessimistic view of the nation's economy. I think he called it a "real downer" that we were facing. Do you share his pessimistic view of the economy? Are we in for a "real downer," in your opinion? Well, now, I don't know what his definition is of a "real downer." I think that we're going to have some hard times for the next few months. I think we're going to see a pickup in the economy, and I think that Don Regan believes this also, in spring or, latest, early summer. ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: That spring, when the president vacationed at the home of actress Claudette Colbert, there were no signs of improvement. Reagan, who had seen himself as coming to America's rescue, began to be cast as callous and insensitive-- "splashing in the lap of luxury while Americans go hungry," one reporter wrote. But the press reserved its harshest criticism for the first lady, calling attention to her designer dresses, her lavish entertainment, her millionaire friends, her new White House china-- failing to note that it had been donated. The extravagance of the Reagan White House added to the perception of insensitivity, a perception Reagan bitterly resented. MORRIS: His invariable line when the subject of poverty and homelessness was raised was: "I know about, all about the Depression, "because I was out hitchhiking across the landscape "looking for work in the depths of the Depression. I know about poverty." Actually, it was just a matter of a couple of weeks. He got a job very quickly, and from January 1933 onward, never had to look anywhere for a salary check. If you wanted something done with my father, if you wanted him to move a certain way on a certain policy, what you had to do was humanize it-- bring him a person that's afflicted by some problem or another, and all of a sudden, then it becomes very real to him. He would have three or four checks, personal checks, in the top drawer of his desk in the Oval Office, and he was always running out of those checks because he was writing checks to people. I went in there one time and he had written a check to some woman who was on welfare and the next month he got his bank statement. Well, you know, the bank statement had these checks and her check wasn't in it. So he called her on the phone and said, "You know, you haven't cashed that check." She said, "Oh, no, I framed it." He said, "Well, my God, I sent you that money "so you'd have some money to eat. "I'll send you another check. You keep that one framed and cash this one." Simply because he becomes aware of one person's plight and responds to it as a human being doesn't really solve the problem. I mean, he's basically responsible for the economic management of the United States and he has to deal with that responsibility, not simply as an individual citizen. NARRATOR: As the recession deepened through 1982, its effects were felt across America. Farmers were driven off their land by high interest rates. In the cities, homelessness became a scandal. Thousands of businesses failed. Unemployment reached its highest level since the Great Depression. "I prayed a lot during this period," Reagan wrote, "not only for the country and people who were out of work, but for help and guidance in doing the right thing." Pressure on Reagan to change course mounted. His program-- now derided as "Reaganomics"-- had not only failed to produce growth, but was leading the nation into fiscal disaster. "We are really in trouble," Reagan confided to his diary. "Our projections are out the window. "We look at $200 billion deficits if we can't pull off some miracles." Even true believers were disillusioned. David Stockman, tired of arguing for cuts, now urged the president to raise taxes. "Reagan," wrote columnists Evans and Novak, "was having to fight two-thirds of his administration to save his economic program." SMITH: There are very few conventional politicians who would have stuck it out as he did. But he came to office imbued with a conviction that less government and lower taxes would resolve the pervasive sickness of the American economy. And what he saw 1982 as was the fever that was about to break. NARRATOR: Reagan stayed the course. "I believed the economic recovery would work," he wrote, "because I had faith in those tax cuts and faith in the American people." But the American people were losing faith in Ronald Reagan. MAN: He'd better read the papers a little better. Go down to the employment office and see all the people standing there getting unemployment benefits-- those that can get them and those that have ran out of them and so forth. The president himself hasn't got the message yet. I don't like to turn to welfare, but if that's what it's going to take to get by until this current economic situation is through, that's what we'll have to do. I think the American dream is in the past. It's long gone. CROWD: What do we want? Jobs! When do you want them? Now! What do we want? Jobs! NARRATOR: On November 2, in critical mid-term elections, voters would pass judgment on Ronald Reagan and his conservative program. Reagan watched as the American people gave a vote of no confidence by throwing 26 Republicans out of the House. The political disaster his staff had feared was upon him. With 11.6 million people out of work, would you be willing to have some cutbacks in defense spending to help these people who are out of work? CANNON: Have you ruled out the possibility that you would modify in any way your call for an increased defense budget maybe just for this one year? ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: Ronald Reagan had vowed to fight communism. Now his defense buildup-- the chief weapon in his anti-Soviet crusade-- was coming under attack. In what might have been the largest peacetime gathering in American history, nearly one million people rallied in Central Park to call for a freeze in nuclear weapons production. All of us want to live and we want life for our children and our grandchildren. NARRATOR: Two years into his presidency, the talk in Washington was of chaos and disarray. "The question no longer is whether Reagan has failed," wrote a conservative analyst, "but the magnitude and ramifications of his failure." By January 1983, Reagan's approval rating had plummeted to 35%. Her husband, Nancy confided to a reporter, might not seek a second term. MAN: I brought him the bad news that his job rating was low, and... he was very serious for a moment, and then he smiled and he then reached over and patted me on the arm, and said, "I know just what I can do about it. I'll go out and get shot again." NARRATOR: If Reagan's presidency failed, his crusade to protect America from big government, begun in 1964, would fail with it. His crusade to save the world from communism, begun in 1946, would fail, too. Ronald Reagan had come to office to rescue America. Now he was the one in need of rescue. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ANNOUNCER: "American Experience: Reagan" is available with PBS Passport and on Amazon Prime Video. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪