speeches will begin after polling places close live on c-span. >> each week, american history tv's real america brings you ar k archival films. beginning in april in 1965 with an intervention to help americans during the civil war in the dominican republic. it also feature action in

vietnam, including a look at the challenges of terrain in the country, the importance of the helicopter and air power. and efforts to assist rural vietnamese people with security and health care. >> i got a lot of pain in that left ankle. it's that sharp pain that you get when you've got nerves, you know. it's that sharp nerve pain. burning, burning. >> i will do all i can to save that leg. i know. i know there's not much left.

i was carrying that damn things in my hands on the way back. i was afraid the whole thing was going to come off. >> for these a means, 1965 was a year like no other in history. fleet marine forces with were committed to combat in both hemispheres at once. ♪ in the dominican republic violence flared endangering the

security of the hemisphere. the marines were sent in. and in vietnam, growing communist aggression with the commitment of battle-ready marines with the pacific fleet. ♪ all in all, it was quite a year. this is the story of it. the caribbean in april, blue water, gentle surf, sun-lit leisurely beaches. warmth and laughter and fun. but in april of 1965, the

dominican republic becomes a scene of violence, unrest and upheaval endangering the security of the hemisphere. it's a threat which is immediately recognized. >> the american nation cannot, must not and will not permit the establishment of another communist government in the western hemisphere. [ alarm sounds ] >> on april 28th, word comes to the carrier boxer that help is needed in santo domingo. in moments marines already in a battalion are stationed into a

caravan. ♪ like two other such ready battalions on board ships in the mediterranean and the far east, the unit from the boxer is able to react, literally, on a minute's notice. 20 minutes after the call for help is received, a spearhead platoon with full combat gear is on the ground in the dominican republic. quickly the platoon sets up a defense perimeter to ensure the safety of the american embassy and of civilians who have taken refuge in the ambassador hotel. ♪

immediately united states citizens are evacuated from the danger area. as the situation in domingo grows worse, the company follows the platoon ashore. and the company is soon joined by the rest of the battalion. ♪ >> one of the first jobs is to clear a corridor for necessary movement and communications and to provide a buffer zone, a neutral area between rebel forces and dominican government troops. [ gunfire ]

♪ within the neutral corridor, once it is established, the situation becomes fairly stable. but to wander out of it even by mistake can mean trouble. of four marines whose jeep wandered out of the corridor, two are on their way to medical aid. the other two are in less

friendly hands, but an angry marine who has just seen a couple of his buddies hurt does not make the most cooperative prisoner. >> they took the wrong way. they were seven blocks away if the international line. they were on their way to the airport seven blocks away from the line. >> they made a wrong turn. they got halfway up the street, your people started shooting at us. you hit one of our men. you almost destroyed one of our vehicles. '. >> we will treat you as a prisoner. we will give you all the guarantee tiers, but you better take it easy. don't be so arrogant. we will not tolerate it. >> welcome to the united states. you can go your way just like that? >> we have already radioed to announce that we are sorry that by careless of the american forces, this situation took place and loofs have been loos from their side and our side.

we hope that they keep their line to avoid trouble. >> there was this one guy, he couldn't hit anything. every afternoon he'd fire a few rounds down our way and, you know, we'd stay and cover more or less, but he never came close to anybody. i mean, if we cleaned him out, they might have put somebody in there that could shoot. >> other times the sniper problem requires action. ♪ ♪

>> as things settle down, the job becomes one of maintaining security. this means, among other things, a constant and careful search of all civilian traffic through the neutral corridor. no hiding place is overlooked, which might conceal weapons. the means of renewing violence in the corridor. so the marines remain in santo domingo, ready to stay until the danger is passed and order fully restored. >> kelly, you infiltrating the people down. >> what's that, sir? >> start infiltrating your people down. [ gunfire ]

>> whoever's firing this machine gun. >> gulf one, gulf one, it's gulf six, over. that was good. he put it in. i want more over there. >> vietnam, a wounded marine is rescued under heavy enemy fire. his buddy is questioned. >> whatever possessed you to go running off into the paddy like that? >> i'm a marine. >> how do you mean? >> i'm a marine. i'll take care of him. >> do you take your weapon with you? i. >> i took my .45. >> weren't you scared? >> a little bit after i got out there. >> combat is never easy, but in vietnam it is especially hard. one big reason, the terrain.

rice paddies with mud boottop deep or worse, streams crisscrossing the paddies and valleys. hills steep and unfriendly as those in korea. ♪ ♪ desert-like areas where temperatures hit 130 in the shade. and there isn't any shade. and tropic jungle, hot, steaming, hostile as any the marines faced in the pacific during world war ii. a prime answer to the near impassability of vietnamese terrain is the helicopter. beneath the staccato slap of rotor blades, marines can move swiftly to wherever the vietcong are reported and arrive fresh and ready to function. of course, to marines, this is

no new concept. it was in the early 1950s that for a first time a copter assault was used to take ground in a combat zone. the place a hilltop in korea. combat troops were landed. so were full supplies for their assault. though it had never been tried before, it had been worked out in advance. the operation was successful. the people who did it were united states marines. in the mid-1960s navy seabees clear the way for another marine corps innovation which sees its first use in vietnam,

the expeditionary landing field, it's called, e.l.f. for short. everything is air transportable including the preformed sections of lightweight metal which interlock to form a smooth all-weather landing surface. once again the seabees make the difficult look easy. they put down 8,000 foot of runway and set up the accessory gear. lightweight landing control console, carrier-type landing lights, arresting gear, air portable control tower. the seabees have, in fact, taken a carrier deck and moved it ashore. ♪ ♪

>> the first skyhawk jets to arrive are quickly readied for action. ♪ ♪ just four hours after the first jets land, they are taking off again to fly their first mission in close support of ground troops in the field. the forward air controller with the ground forces is a combat pilot himself. talking directly to the jets, he pinpoints targets for them. ♪ ♪

the result of this direct voice link with airborne jets is this -- an absolute minimum of delay between the time ground troops need air support and the time they get it laid in close. ♪ the combat success of the expeditionary landing field is another index of marine corps mobility. in a matter of days a landing strip, control tower, arresting gear, the whole works could be taken apart and airlifted to another location. for now, however, it's working just fine here at ku lai. elsewhere on high ground above the huge air base at danang. marines man the dead ly hawks.

army air has not been a problem yet in vietnam. but should it come, the hawks are waiting. on the field at danang itself, the business of delivering destruction to vietcong in the paddies and the jungles, is a round the clock job. marine phantom jets are doing a big part of that job. and it is this kind of weapons system, this complexity and sophistication of striking power which leads observers to use the term "the new breed" in speaking of today's marine. ♪ ♪ the phantom can break the sound barrier while climbing out from takeoff and move into action at better than twice the speed of sound. the armament that they can deliver offers wide flexibility, too, ranging from bombs and 20

millimeter cannon to rockets and bull pup missiles. the flame and shrapnel of the marine jets is not delivered casually. to be sure of targets, minimize danger for the innocents, is always agonizingly present. ♪ ♪ for some the price of humane hesitancy comes high. like this marine colonel, hit while controlling jet air support from a low flying copter. >> i've got a lot of pain in that left ankle. i sense it's a good sign. that sharp pain that you get when you got nerves, you know. it's that sharp nerve pain.

burning, burning. >> i'll do all i can to save that leg. >> i know. i know there's not much left because -- i was carrying that damn thing in my hands all the way back. i was afraid the whole thing was going to come off. i say, hell, they can't be right around in here. so i didn't call bombs and nape in on these people but that's where they were. i'm sure now that that's where they were. god damn it. i hate to put nape and on the women and children. i just didn't do it. i just said they can't be there. though we held the planes, we held the fixed wings up, we held them up there, just figured we could call them if we need them. as far as i know, i'm the first to hit it. i flew down at 100, 200 feet over this village, this hamlet area. i thought i saw some people in a

hole, and i just hung around there too long. and i was too low. but i was way back out over the friendly troops that we landed. i was over those troops when i went -- oh -- when we caught this round. there was no indication that we'd been fired at until then. >> since all their operations are in coastal areas, the support of naval gunfire is something the marines in vietnam can always count on. ♪ during 1965, marine forces launch a number of large scale offensive operations. names like operation starlight, harvest moon and piranha are written into history. in such operations as these, the young marines of the new breed engaged the vietcong guerrillas

and take on vietnamese regulars as well in numbers up to regimental strength and greater. using all the advanced weaponry and mobility at their command, the marines seek out the enemy. and wherever they find him, they beat him decisively. not just tactical defeat, disaster. virtual elimination of organized combat capability is the way the official reports put it. ♪ ♪ >> half-load. fire! ♪ ♪

♪ >> in their first major trial by fire, youngsters who were too young even to read about korea worked with a cool professional skill that leaves one old-timer to remark -- >> well, they're young marines, they're just as good marines today as they were 15 years ago and possibly a lot better as far as intelligence and their capabilities are concerned. they're real fine as far as i'm concerned. >> some of the troops went in through here. >> yeah. >> right in through there? >> we got a 360 here that we're pulling out as soon as we get

under way. >> this is six. this is six. roger, we've got it now. i want you to set up that hasty defense in there real quick. but check it out. >> okay. set him down in a minute. >> stay like that. >> ready? >> is the pain a lot, manny? >> i need some help over here. >> i'll give you a hand. >> don't throw any water on my

face. >> you don't want any more water on your face? he's awake now. >> all the way up. >> lay still, man. okay? >> evacuate the man to the rear to where we can get him out on a chopper. do you understand? over. >> the chopper saves a lot of lives in vietnam. in minutes a man can be air lifted direct from combat to an aid station where the compassionate skill of navy surgeons is ready and waiting. marine casualties have been light in vietnam, but there is no warfare without its pain -- both felt and shared. ♪ ♪

marines in vietnam learn fast to take nothing at face value. far too often beneath the outer appearance of a harmless civilian, there is the familiar black garb of the vietcong guerrilla. ♪ ♪ the vietcong is a tough, ruthless jungle fighter, experienced in being hard to find. but in places like okinawa, iwo jima, the marines have learned, too. ♪ ♪ without their weapons, they look so insignificant. but the vc is hard. his thin wiry body can take

great physical hardship and his mind will not shrink from burying a village chief alive or executing all village elders if it might further his aims. ♪ ♪ hard as he is, however, and the vietcong is no superman. he can be beaten on his own ground and beaten badly. in operations like starlight and harvest moon and piranha, the marines have demonstrated this beyond anyone's doubting, including the vietcong. the vietcong are not the only problem. in dark little villages, the same ones the vietcong have hidden in and operated from, marines find the people they have come to help.

people who have lived for too long in fear. >> well, the vietnamese are a wonderful people as far as i'm concerned. and they need help and we're a strong nation and we can give them help, and they've asked for that help, so we're here. >> i've always had the feeling if we could get the feeling across to the people of vietnam, that the people of the united states were behind them and wanted them to be free to have the things that they've been denied for so many years that we could possibly bring peace to these people. >> ten years from now these people will forget the bulls and the shot and the shell and everything else. but they're going to remember this if they don't remember anything else. i think if we're going to win this war, that we're going to do it here before we'll do it on the battlefield. that's the only way we can win it. >> the people who live out in the rice country, their standard of living is very low by our standards. they have very few comforts. they live from rice crop to rice crop.

>> this is the other war in vietnam, the one in which american fighting men are working with vietnamese civilians to build hope and strength for the future. it takes many forms. standing guard, for example, over the harvesting of rice for a village which for years has paid a big part of the crop for -- to the vietcong. helping them bring it in and store it, letting them see that they and their crops are going to be safe from now on, it's simple and it's practical. it's appreciated and it works. ♪ ♪ in another village, navy doctors and corpsmen serving with the marine corps will be found helping the people fight a war

against sickness. teaching the fundamentals of sanitation, waging combat against infection. ♪ ♪ bringing smiles to faces that for too long have reflected only fear and despair. >> we was out in the village giving out christmas things that people from the states sent over. and we want to let everyone know back home that the kids are -- they really need it a lot and, believe me, they really enjoy everything they get. ♪ ♪

♪ >> tuesday night american history tv focuses on the struggle for african american equality from the jim crow eraf the late 19th century to, the civil rights movement. tune in tuesday night and every night this week here on c-span3. >> this week on q & a, robert gordon, professor of economics at northwestern university discusses his book, the rise and fall of american growth, in which he looks at the greath and the american standard of living between 1870 and 1970 and questions if we'll ever see anything like it again. watch this sundat