and information about potentially illegal activities. in exchange he gave them certain kinds of assistance, panlt, paint brushes, hamburger meat and access to an electrical box in the catwalk, things that he thought were innocuous but turned out not to be. >> that does it for us tonight. we appreciate you watching. we'll be back at 11:00 p.m. for another edition of "360" all the latest on the prisoners still out there some where the hunt is still on for them. the cnn original series "the seventies" starts now. >> vietnam is the most divisive morally abrasive war americans have ever fought anywhere. >> it is time for the great silent majority to stand up and be counted. >> how do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake. >> we will refuse to do it. you may be in jail but you won't be dead. >> military pressure will continue until a peace settlement is achieved. >> we can achieved peace with honor. >> the americans are leaving. >> the vietnamese must stay and face uncertainty. >> vietnam, we have reached the end of the tunnel and there is no light there. ♪

♪ ♪

there is no understanding of america in the 1970s without understanding how the decade began in relationship to the war in vietnam. >> normally casualties are released on thursday, but fighting has been so bitter, that military sources released the casualties unofficially today. 340 americans and 527 south vietnamese were killed last week. enemy dead were reported to be more than 5,000. >> there was some grumbling among numbers of young g.i.s taking part in assaults questioning whether the objective is worth the

bloodshed. >> how the here in this clearly difficult war, i think history will report this may have been one of america's finest hours. because we took a difficult task and we succeeded. you're doing your job. i can assure you we're going to fry to ours to see that they don't fight in vain. >> nixon did not want to be the first president of the united states to lose a war. it was a matter of personal pride with him. his basic goal to end the war as quickly as possible but on honorable terms with preserving his view, credibility as a world power and as an ally. >> president nixon will dispatch his adviser on foreign affairs, henry kissinger to paris for peace talks. >> nixon's strategy on vietnam was to negotiate a peace agreement but at the same time to -- >> we had to turn the conflict over to south vietnam or it would be helpless. >> the south vietnamese were taught to think like americans, americans. >> south vietnam's president thieu, he wanted nothing more than to gradually take over full responsibility for the war. >> president nixon started with joint troops almost right away. he had a lot to withdraw. over 500,000 men there.

>> but he did this very slowly. as they supposedly shifted the burden of the fighting to the south vietnamese. so slowly a lot of people were getting killed in the process. and there was no end to it. >> october 15, 1969, vietnam moratorium day. >> surely this is a day unique in our history. never have so many of our people, publicly, and collectively manifested opposition to this country's involvement in a war. >> it wasn't hippies. it wasn't radicals and markists. it was ordinary middle-class americans. 2 million taking the day off from school, from work. it was a genuine democratic explosion of anti-war sentiment. >> mr. nixon and the loss of popular support and appearance of it could reduce the leadership to press on in the expectation that the united states would quit. >> the october moratorium made

richard nixon go to the mountain top literally. he went to camp david for two weeks to write a speech. to answer the anti-war movement. the elites had gotten on the anti-war bandwagon. the press. harvard, the universities, the east coast establishment. by 1969, they were all anti-war. >> hell no, we won't go! >> nixon wanted to rise up and show there was another side. his side. the outsiders. the people who didn't go to harvard. who revered the flag and supported our soldiers. and he want to rally them. >> to you, the great silent majority of my fellow americans, i ask for your support. north vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the united states. only americans can do that. >> the term silent majority clicked with middle america because they were never represented on television and

they didn't feel they were represented in washington and didn't really have a voice. >> president nixon proudly displayed telegrams from people who supported him. >> it is time for the great silent majority just stew stand up and be counted. >> at that point he went to 68% approval. >> it gave him the room he needed to maneuver. >> good evening, my fellow americans. tonight american and south vietnamese units will attack the headquarters for the entire communist military operation in south vietnam. this is not an invasion of cambodia. >> nixon's conviction is that what you have got to do is cut off the supplies that the north vietnamese are funneling into the south to the viet cong and the way to do it is to take out the ho chi minh trail, the root

they're using through cambodia. >> you don't quite realize cambodia is its own country. they're using through cambodia. >> you don't quite realize cambodia is its own countro they're using through cambodia. >> you don't quite realize cambodia is its own countrut they're using through cambodia. >> you don't quite realize cambodia is its own countre they're using through cambodia. >> you don't quite realize cambodia is its own country. in fact a country that always had ten was relationships with vietnam. once they destabilize cambodia vietnam. once they destabilize cambodi r vietnam. once they destabilize cambodin vietnam. once they destabilize cambodi r vietnam. once they destabilize cambodi r vietnam. once they destabilize cambodi r vietnam. once they destabilize cambodi r vietnam. once they destabilize cambodit vietnam. once they destabilize cambodi r vietnam. once they destabilize cambodin vietnam. once they destabilize cambodio vietnam. once they destabilize cambodius vietnam. once they destabilize cambodia vietnam. once they destabilize cambodia you really just have all hell breaking out. >> the cambodian operation will continue during the coming days. american units searching for north vietnamese troops and installations. but what they will find or how long they will be here no one can say for sure. >> the active, large scale american and south vietnamese fight in cambodia brought a cry of anger. at kent state, ohio, the protest turned into a riot with thousand of demonstrators facing national guardsmen and police.

>> four students are killed at kent state. two students are killed at jackson state in mississippi. nixon is sort of overwhelmed. he is bewildered. nixon was very upset by the deaths, by the belief that he had caused them. and it was a low point of his presidency. >> the events of this past week have polarized not only the opposition to the war but also the opposition to the anti-war movement. >> hard hat construction workers chased and beat demonstrators in the streets of the financial district. police joined ranks and watched

student brutally beat. >> smoke generated by the latest fuss is tending to obscure the question will demonstrations have effect shaping the president's vietnam policies the answer remains no. here we go again. another day shackled by wires. >> announcer: this cnn original series "the seventies" its brought to you by -- just a little taste of power? who knew charging could be so... ...draining? you can keep plugging away... or, you can change the way you charge. the samsung galaxy s6 and s6 edge, with built-in wireless charging capabilities. get a 64 gigabyte gs6 or gs6 edge for the price of 32 gigabyte.

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>> a united states military court martial formally established today there was a massacre of civilians at melei.

if convicted, one of the american soldiers who was there, of premeditated murder in the death of 22 south vietnamese. >> he commander of the unit that went into my lai, a village supposed to be harboring viet cong troops. >> we were ferried in by helicopters. we led on the outskirts of the village. we came across some people in the village. i have in the one photograph. you can see in the expressions of their faces, before they're about to be shot. especially the small child on the left. and the one small boy not realizing what as it but to happen. >> in the spasm of violence, hundreds of people are killed. all of them civilians. this unit from the division lost it. they said that well we just felt like we were killing vermin. they pulled the trigger by somehow tricking themselves off to think that they're not killing a human they're killing an animal.

the captain and lieutenant did not do anything to stop them. they had lost it themselves. it was a complete failure. >> the white house is accutely aware that the my lai scandal could bring a disastrous witling away of support for the vietnam war and mr. nixon's plans for a staged withdrawal of american forces. >> what happened in the case was not a combat situation. he shot in cold blood old men, women and children and we as a country failed to recognize an act of cold-blooded murder. [ indiscernible ] >> why not convict the battalion commander -- >> hold it. hold it. hold it. all right. fellows. [ indiscernible ] >> -- every single one of them that put the man in vietnam. that's how i feel. every one of them. >> vietnam, fifth calvary,

initiating new men. ♪ doo-dah ♪ doo-dah ♪ you're going home in a body bag all the doo-dah day ♪ the day after the initiations, five men came back in body bags. >> by the '70s, the u.s. army in vietnam had been essentially destroyed. every time we tangled with the vietnamese we were getting killed. and there was no end to it. you have got what amounted to a state of individual mutiny in the u.s. army. >> senseless, walking down the road. >> i'll walk down the track. >> we are going to move out. they're going to be left behind. or i am going to take the point.

they can follow if they want to. it's that simple. we're going to do it. we are just going to refuse to do it. you may be in jail. but you won't be dead. >> you are supposed to be withdrawing, right. since we are going home, why don't we take it easy. don't go out looking for trouble. if they come to us, fight. going out looking for trouble. wasting more lives for just time's sake. to me is just absurd. i dont' know. >> the people coming over here. are a lot different than they used to be. like world war ii people or the old vietnam people. it's the woodstock generation coming to vietnam. >> the public campaign against the war in vietnam took on a new dimension in washington today. men who have been there began demonstrations on the end of the conflict. >> business men protested.

students have protested. mothers have protested. everybody has. the men who fought the war. know what it is like. who know what we are fighting haven't. and it's the first time in history they're going to do that. >> it doesn't mean a thing. >> good evening. the war in vietnam has often been camouflaged by misleading statistics of body counts, weapons captured, hamlets pacified. we are now in the midst of new revealing statistics the 2.5 million words of the pentagon papers. these once secret papers tell the agonizing story of the u.s. involvement in vietnam through four administrations of expanding equipment. the pentagon papers have touched off the deepest controversies, centering on whether the presidents and their men deceived the people.

>> daniel ehlsberg, an official who had served in the defense department and had access to the materials is the one who leaks this to the press. >> i was the lead reporter in the pentagon papers. ellsberg turned against the war. and he copied these papers with the hope that's eventually they would be used to embarrass an awful lot of people. and which would show that we had made a terrible mistake. fighting this war in vietnam. [ indiscernible ] >> i think kissinger was obsessed with secrecy. and so was nixon. my first three articles were published. and the nixon administration then wanted to stop the whole thing.

[ indiscernible ] >> my argument inside was if you want to make the case against the pentagon papers, get up and charge "the new york times" with publishing national security secrets, gross irresponsibility, sabotaging the war in vietnam. >> the justice department went to court in new york today and got a temporary order restraining "the times" from publishing the next and last two installments. >> attorneys for "the new york times" claim the protection of the first amendment, freedom of the press is sufficient to protect their memorandums. >> the supreme court ruled that "the new york times" may continue to publish the secret pentagon papers. >> the people of this country can't afford to let the president run the country by himself even foreign affairs anymore than domestic affairs. without the help of the

congress. without the help of the public. >> if you had to sum up the prevailing mood here on capitol hill, you could do it with two words embarrassment and anger.

>> because of the following cbs

news special report, "the merv griffin show" will begin one half-hour later. >> the president of the united states tonight disclosed a vietnam peace offer he says has been secretly offered to the communists. the plan calls for withdrawal of all u.s. forces within six months and new south vietnamese elections in exchange for a cease-fire and return of all american prisoners. >> the offer that i shall now present on behalf of the government of the united states and the government of south vietnam with the full knowledge and approval of president thieu is both generous and far reaching. >> the response from north vietnam, you are missing something. but we were not going to overthrow an ally as we left. that was the sticking point. >> we were stuck. it was a stalemate. >> this is the scene on the white house lawn. as the the presidential helicopter waits for president nixon to begin what must be surely one of the most remarkable journeys ever undertaken by an american president. his trip to peking. >> i will undertake what i deeply hope will become a

journey for peace. >> is the food as good as people say it is? >> i'm no expert on chinese food. but i liked it. >> nixon was a very geopolitical thinker. he liked the idea of linkage. he could link u.s. soviet policy and produce one tidy bundle. >> nixon thought the vietnamese were pawns of the chinese and soviets. they were communists domestically, but they were

communists domestically but they were no one's pawn. they were using the chinese and the russians playing them off each other to get weaponry to fight us to gain their independence. >> the heaviest fighting in a year broke out in south vietnam today. north vietnamese forces struck at eight bases manned by south vietnamese troops just south of the demilitarized zone. >> the north vietnamese are unnerved by the fact that the americans seem to be making peace with both the soviets and the chinese. they're feeling alienated from their principal allies. they see the offensive as a bold effort to perhaps bring the war to a close or perhaps put themselves in a much better position with respect to negotiations. >> the president has decided to keep american troops out of fight and to keep them coming home on schedule no matter what happens to the south vietnamese. according to top officials here he will limit u.s. counteraction to massive air strikes against enemy forces and installations in south as well as north vietnam. >> the americans respond in great force. and so you see an absolutely massive aerial bombardment. >> the latest in some ways the

greatest of mr. nixon's gambles in his efforts to end the war as he says "with honor and not defeat." >> and now the world is waiting to see how the american minefields will affect the north vietnamese supply system. will they really strangle the enemy's most important supply line? >> the north vietnamese fail in this effort to have a breakthrough as a result of this offensive. and they suffer massive casualties. >> it helps to advance the negotiations in a way that hadn't been possible before. >> henry kissinger dropped out of sight again and nobody is saying where he is. the president's top adviser left the western white house yesterday with his children. there there is speculation he may have gone to paris to lead secret peace talks with north vietnam. >> the north vietnamese position began to change before the 1972 election. they knew nixon was unpredictable. if we get this mad man re-elected, looks like he is going to be and doesn't have to

worry about re-election ever again what is he going to do from now. october 8 in paris the north vietnamese presented a proposal for the first time after three or four years after endless negotiations dropped their political requirement that we overthrow the saigon government. i remember stepping outside in a break and kissinger and i were in the garden in paris and we shook hands and we said "we have done it." >> we believe that peace is at hand. there will be a return of all american prisoners within 60 days after the agreement comes into force. >> now with the election just 12 days away the nixon administration says peace is at hand. it might appear some one has pulled a rug out from mcgovern. [ indiscernible ] >> kissinger telling us peace is

[ indiscernible ] >> kissinger telling us peace is at hand was seeing the united states as a cynical ploy to win the election. >> the fact is kissinger is telling saigon this is the best you are going to get. >> thieu was afraid he was being sold out. and once the americans left it would be a short matter of time before his own government fell. >> looked like we had a peace deal. kissinger said peace is at hand publicly. no deal. ave 30 years of customer records. our cloud can keep them safe and accessible anywhere. my drivers don't have time to fill out forms. tablets. keep them all digital. we're looking to double our deliveries. our fleet apps will find the fastest route. oh, and your boysenberry apple scones smell about done.

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>> massachusetts is the only states going for mcgovern. >> president nixon is swept back into the white house. the victory landslide, seems to be mr. nixon's alone. not his party's. >> i think nixon was resolute. now i am liberated. now i am never going to have to run again. now i am going to be whom i wish to be.

>> the united states has resumed full-scale bombing of north vietnam including the hanoi haiphong area. the north vietnamese said american planes carried out heavy attacks around the cities and hanoi's armed forces shot down a large number of planes and captured several pilots. nixon wanted the communists to think he was crazy in the hopes that that would drive them back to the bargaining table. >> a lot of the civilian areas were hit apparently. and i don't want to say that it was not a very painful thing to have to do. >> when 8,500 pound bombs go off one plane the closest thing to a nuclear weapon. >> the response to the bombing was such an outrage. here is this small, third-world country that the united states is bombing back to the stone age. >> the word from the president is, military pressure will

continue until a peace settlement is reached. >> within days after this so-called christmas bombing, the north vietnamese came back to us and wanted to reopen the negotiations made some concessions and within weeks we had an agreement. so what any one thinks of the bombing it produced peace within about a month. >> good evening. the vietnam war ended today. ended officially in this room in paris. >> the treaty basically said that south vietnamese get to keep their government. the north vietnamese get to coop their soldiersen south vietnam. the north vietnamese release the 500 american p.o.w.s and everybody promises to stop fighting. >> as far as this administration is concerned, we have done the very best that we can. against very great obstacles. and we finally have achieved a peace with honor. i know it gags some of you to write that phrase but that is true.

and most americans realize it is true. >> it is the americans who are celebrating. they are leaving. the vietnamese are not celebrating. they must stay and face the uncertainty of whatever is going to happen to them next. >> in hanoi, the american military involvement in the vietnam war finally came to an end. if anything symbolized the american agony of vietnam it was the prisoners. >> most were pilots. many had spent more than six years in prison. now they were on their way home. >> it wasn't really until we rolled down the runway. finally lifted off enemy soil that we all broke loose and started hugging and kissing. the air force nurses. it was just unbelievable. >> and it was all euphoria. >> gathered in the den to watch the arrival of the planes in the philippines. there was no word which of the

three planes the lt. colonel would be on. the first one landed but it wasn't that one. then came the second plane. someone in the family said that he went be on this one either. but he was. >> oh! >> we were greeted by thousands of people, they let out the schools and everybody was waving flags and calling our names. it was a great, great homecoming. >> we are honored to have the

opportunity to serve our country under difficult circumstances. >> they were legitimate heroes they had suffered terribly. and here they were home. and it gave the country something to cheer about after having so little to cheer about. ♪ ♪ >> mr. nixon said he does not plan to greet returning p.o.w.s, because "this is a time when we should not grandstand it, we should not exploit it." >> so many of the soldiers that came home from vietnam in the early '70s couldn't wear their uniforms in public. they were called baby killers to their face.

and it really was very disturbing. it distressed us all to think that those comrades in arms had come back to such a negative reception where we had come back to ticker tape parades. >> american language has changed since you went away it may have changed since you returned. so the conversation of your wives, friends, children may seem strange. >> the "today" show devoted a two-hour episode to explaining ostensibly the prisoners of war. what had happened in america in their absence. they left a country where the "sound of music" was the most popular movie. they returned to one in which "last tango in paris" was the most popular, that involved unspeakable carnal acts illegal in any state. >> whatever you do don't call a group of women girls, it's no longer considered a compliment by many. >> we came home to quite a different world. like rip van winkle waking up after six years in a prison camp.

it was unbelievable that our culture had changed to that point. >> in south vietnam both the saigon government and communists have accused each other of new cease-fire violations motivated by attempts to gain more villages and territory. the nixon administration expressed confidence the cease-fire will prove effective before long. >> mr. president, we have been allies in a long, difficult war. and now you can be sure that we stand with you as we continue to work together to build a lasting peace. >> nixon promised that if the north vietnamese renewed the offensive he would send the b-52s back to hanoi. it didn't happen because he was caught up in watergate.

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♪ >> washington is a city that revolves around controversy during office hours and elegant social events at night. these of course are days where there is no shortage of controversy with a sensational testimony before the watergate committee on capitol hill, with henry kissinger still trying to get the cease-fire agreement

implemented. for a few hours tonight attention will be shifted from the daytime problems here at the white house. the guest of honor for 600 americans held prisoner of war at some time or other during the long, agonizing vietnam conflict. >> all of us would like to join in a round of applause for the brave men that took the b-52s in and did the job. [ applause ] >> nixon was overjoyed when the pows came home. they were overjoyed to see him. nixon was a hero to the pows. >> as al of you know if they hadn't have done it you wouldn't be here tonight. >> but while he was cheering the pows, nixon was thinking, watergate is going to take me down. that night when it was over, he went back to his study and got his daughters down and said, you know, i might have to resign. >> good evening. the congress of the united states in an historic action

today made effective a limitation on the powers of the president to make war. the house and then the senate overturned president nixon's veto of the war powers bill and despite his opposition that measure now becomes law. >> is this override the result of watergate? the new developments in the watergate? >> i think this has no relationship at all to watergate. this is a prerogative of the congress of the united states that several presidents have tried to take unto themselves. the people of this country are demanding that never again to due we stumble into a watergate excuse me. the people of the country are demanding that we never again stumble into another vietnam. >> at 9:04, this evening, richard m. nixon became the first president ever to resign his office. >> and there its the president waving good-bye. >> as we bind up the internal

rules of watergate, more painful and more poisonous than those of foreign wars, let brotherly love purge our hearts of suspicion and of hate. >> there was this collective sigh of relief in the country. okay, we have a new president. it is a new day. let's see how things go. >> secretary kissinger, the president already announced that he will stay in the cabinet. >> sophisticated vietnamese believe they're the ultimate victims of watergate. they think congress cut u.s. aid to settle a score with former president nixon. >> march 18, 1975. >> according to pentagon sources, north vietnamese have penetrated to a point some 25 miles east of the provincial capital of ban me thuit fell over the weekend. >> it involved a lot of bloody combat. for the first 11 months the south vietnamese fought quite well. but by 1975, it became more and

more clear that the north vietnamese were building up a formidable logistical system that portended real danger for the south vietnamese. >> the communists began the first major attack of their offensive. saigon's troops made a stand. it was a vital one. the entire central highland might be lost. and south vietnam could be cut in two by the north vietnamese and the viet cong. >> the plan that the north vietnamese conceived would be a two-year plan. what happened was that when attacking the central highlands town of ban my thuit, the thieu government lost composure. >> the government troops were ordered by president thieu to pull out of the central provinces. >> the withdrawal became a rout, civilians and soldiers fleeing in panic leaving behind huge supplies of american-made war materials. >> the north vietnamese never dreamed it would result in such a dramatic decision as to abandon the highlands which had

been fought over for 12 years. so they reconvened their central military committee and determined that the iron is hot. and this the time to strike. >> president thieu said he would not abandon the city but the people are leaving anyway. the president said he would not abandon the city and that city is gone. >> the world witnessed the tragedy and the next thing you know those of us sitting in saigon are watching our map legitimately bleed red. ♪ >> a somber henry kissinger outlined in a news conference what he saw as the choices now facing the united states. >> what we face now is whether the united states, not just will withdraw its forces, which we achieved, and not just will start the end of the loss of

american life, but will they deliberately destroy an ally by withholding aid from it in its moment. >> there is a new harris poll out today about how people feel abut continued military aid to vietnam. only 17% favor that and almost 3/4 of those questioned are opposed to further military aid. >> it is a tragedy unbelievable in its ramifications. i must say that i am frustrated by the action of the congress and not responding to some of the requests both for economic and humanitarian and military assistance in south vietnam. >> when you consider how much we have spent in blood and treasure in southeast asia, how little we bought with the money, i should think that now the time has finally come to say no more.

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a communist commando unit has slipped into saigon and dub dubbed itself beneath the bridge in saigon. behind me, the authority units

who are 500 yards away. this is the closest to fighting has ever come in saigon since communist offensive in 19 6 /* 68. abc news, saigon. >> the communist half of the city was in artillery range. at least in the airport. >> many americans on the ground in south vietnam at that time felt serious obligation to vietnamese whom they have worked with and knew. >> my family come over 7:00 in the morning. i had nearly one hour. my friends said we have to go. go. go now. and i said can i take my food. >> the city was suddenly choked with people all chasing one evacuation convoy after the other.

>> i had borrowed a truck with a bogus embassy license plate on it and stuck people in the truck and drove them through the gate. >> they have two machine guns. we don't know if we come back or not. >> the airport received sporadic rocket fire from communist forces closing in on the city. >> minutes later came the report that all americans are to be evacuated immediately. >> by the 29th at noon, there were about 2500 people in the u.s. embassy who can only be gotten out by helicopter. >> the scene here at the u.s. embassy in saigon is total chaos.

>> the embassy gates were closed. the frightened vietnamese and their families, we also had to fight and claw our way out. >> i couldn't get anyone out. >> 50 at a time they waited in the south china sea. there was no room, so the navy men ordered the pilots to ditch the helicopters in the ocean. >> we were living in a period of what the greeks call huborous. this >> once it became a reality of seeing the pictures on television, not only a retreat, but a disorderly retreat. this is not who we thought we were.

>> to see what was in store for the south vietnamese people, to see the visions of the helicopters and people struggling to get out and the terrible triage and choices that had to be made was clearly one of lowest in my life. >> some captured american jeeps rolled into saigon about three and a half hours after the end of the dramatic american evacuation of u.s. nationals and many south vietnamese. >> there's no way to capture in one evening's broadcast the suffering and the grief of 30 years of a subcontinent war. there's no way to capture the grief of our own nation of the most divisive conflict since our own civil war. in vietnam, we've finally reached the end of the tunnel and there is no light there. what is there, perhaps, was best said by president ford. a war that is finished. the vietnam war produced a

million unwritten story of human misery and human dignity. in all, the war in the south produced over 11 million refugees. 430,000 civilians died in the war according to an american estimate along with 254,000 south vietnamese soldiers. the united states spent more than $350 billion on vietnam. and it may end up being much higher than that. >> the other loss we also know about, even though we don't talk about it very much and when we do, it's as if it were an index or score. 56,000 lives, plus about 150,000 seriously wounded. many of whom will never recover. so when some future politician for some reason feels the need to drag this country in to a war, he might come out here to arlington and stand maybe over

there somewhere to make his announce and tell what he has in mind. if he can attract public support, speaking from a place like this, than his reasons for starting a new war would have to be good ones. questions about what guards were doing as two convicted killers made their escape from prison. the manhunt continues. major win for u.s. president obama's ground breaking health care act. republicans say there are more challenges to come. flames, fights and fury in france's capital. french leaders call violent protesters over the on-line ride sharing uber unacceptable. from cnn world headquarters here in atlanta, i'm george howell. this is cnn newsroom.