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public opinion was adverse to it and it was a majordistraction to other foreign policy initiatives. For thisreason, Nixon and Kissinger set up strategic summits inBeijing and Moscow which aimed to open up China bybringing it in diplomatically, improve relations withRussia and hence put pressure on the Vietnamese tonegotiate a settlement. By interviewing key governmentsources such as Winston Lord, Aide to Henry Kissingerand Morton Halpern, U.S. National Secretary, the filmexplains in a detailed but concise manner, theimportance of détente. For example:Morton Halpern, U.S. National Security Council:Nixon believed, I think correctly, that the opposition tothe war was mostly about the draft and the casualties andnot about the American presence there. Americans didn’tcare if we were bombing Hanoi, they didn’t care if therewere American planes around. What they didn’t like,was the fact that young American men were being sent toVietnam, were drafted and being killed. (BBC2 ColdWar Détente 1969-75 2015-2105)The film shows that in North Vietnam in 1973, peaceaccords did not stop the fighting. In April 1975, theSouth Vietnamese army was struggling, they couldexpect little help from the Americans. Despite the SouthVietnamese besieging the U.S. embassy, the Americanswere bailing out.In the piece on the history of the News at Ten, AndFinally: The End of the News at Ten, journalisticcontributors to ITN over the years are inter-cut withsegments from a disturbing piece of footage from theBiafran War. It shows visuals of black soldiers tying thehands of a prisoner, the voice-over runs:Question: Can you ask him if he’s a Biafran soldier?Answer: I am not a Biafran soldier, but I can show youthe place where they are.Question: If you are not a Biafran soldier, why do you knowthe places where Biafran soldiers are? (7.3.99 Channel 42000-2100 And Finally: The End of News at Ten)Sir David Nicholas, Editor-in-chief of ITN, 1977-89explains:David Nicholas: In the early days of News at Ten, therewas a war in Nigeria where one of the states Biafra, hadbroken away from the central government. There werestories around of alleged atrocities committed by thefederal troops.Nigel Ryan, Editor and Chief Executive, ITN (1968-77): This young man looked absolutely terrified. He hadhis hands tied and he was pleading for his life. He was 17,18 years old.The reel continues:Reporter: What will happen to him now captain?Captain: We will take him to headquartersReporter: But, you’re not going to interrogate him? So,you’re not going to be killed, you’re going to be all right.Is that right captain, you’ll give him food?Michael Nicholson: I said to him, relax you’re a P.O.W.It shows how naive I was then.He is shot dead. Nigel Ryan explains:Nigel Ryan: It was a horrific piece of film. We spent a lotof time wondering how to edit it. It became a very famoussequence at the time. What we decided to do was end itafter the first shot. Within a few days that officer wascourt marshalled by the Nigerian government andsentenced to death and we were invited in to film hisexecution by the Nigerian authorities. But, we declinedbecause we didn’t want to show a killing, but we showedthe first killing because it was news and it was evidence inits own right. (Channel 4 2000-2100 And Finally: End ofNews at Ten)Current affairsThe current affairs documentaries can sometime offer avery innovative perspective on conflict. BBC2’sCorrespondent ran a series of investigations into humanrights abuses in Guatemala (20.2.99) and conflict inIndonesia and Sierra Leone (6.3.99). The report on 20February was headlined the ‘Investigation into the bonesthat bear witness to the abuses of the past’. In this,Correspondent revealed how a war triggered by a CIA coupagainst the elected government of Guatemala, spiralledinto a civil war that lasted four decades and claimed morethan 150,000 lives, most of them Guatemalan Indians.Although three years ago an internationally-brokeredpeace deal ended the conflict, it is only now that theChurch’s Human Rights project, REMHI is beginning tounearth the extent of the human rights abuses carried outin the war. The REMHI’s report Guatemala Never Again,blamed 80% of the killings on the army. The Correspondentreport is structured around the evidence of theseviolations and begins with a description of the violence:Reporter: The army maintained that they wereearthquake victims, but now there is proof that thesevillages were killed by men, who thanks to forensicevidence, may be made accountable for their crimes. Atthe end of the war, a law passed in the name of NationalReconciliation Amnesty War Crimes accepts genocide,torture and disappearances. But, now the bones aretalking and can testify to some of the worst human rightsabuses the world has seen. The Catholic Church isDFID – July 2000 79