• the Treaty and end of the war in 1973
• the impact of the war on the people of the USA at home, and the experiences of the Vietnam veterans.

NB Much of the coverage is rather harrowing.

This section begins with the attempts of the American media to present a positive spin on the defeat in Vietnam. Essentially this amounts to describing the Treaty as peace with honour. The psychological trauma of defeat – and defeat by peasant guerrilla forces – should be noted well.

This section of the programme reveals the uncomfortable truths that emerged from the Vietnam War. Americans were used to seeing themselves as the 'forces of good'. Newsweek describes the wound to the American spirit caused by the war. The coverage then reveals a rather disturbing combination of boredom with the whole event and the coverage of the atrocities committed by US forces and their allies. We also see coverage of the anti-Vietnam protests and of the devastating blow to the morale of the country.

The programme concludes with the tragic experiences of the Vietnam veterans. It looks briefly at the issue of the prisoners of war: some who return, but also the anguish of the families of soldiers whose fate was unknown. There is also the feeling of rejection for the veterans who did return, contrasting starkly with the feted heroes of the Second World War and Korea. Another issue that emerges is that of the large number of black servicemen, especially on the casualty lists.