some people go to work for organizations like blackwater or whenever they have changed their name to now which is what i was about to do until my wife talked me out of it luckily because i would either be older and less tactical now or more dead. so in my particular case coming out of give you this, i it was harder for me because i had three bullet wounds that cost me my career. was going through a divorce. i had pst and was willing to admit it because i am i navy s.e.a.l. i can't tell you. i viewed it as a weakness. the other thing i had was survivor's guilt. how can so many good guys -- one guy in particular, how can these good guys die and i was allowed to live. you think that you should just be grateful, but it really was on you. sometimes even now i will still

find myself thinking, how come this guy died and i was a lot to live so all that way yummy coming back into society. really hard trying to assimilate back again. so i was lucky. i met the right woman, went back to school, became a chiropractor. now i have a job that i love it. that is the thing about s.e.a.l. they have to have a job love. the have to really be making a difference. that is the whole thing, being able to make a difference, being someone special. >> at what point can you talk about commissions that you were on? >> that's a good point. my book couldn't be written until now. we finished about a year-and-a-half ago. we had to wait for everything to happen with the cia in somalia to be out in the open end declassified. the chief of station did an interview and laid everything out. okay. now we can talk about it. ..

>> up next on booktv, bob drury recounts the final 24 hours of the american withdrawal from vietnam on april 29, 1975. he profiles 11 marine corps security guards who oversaw the final evacuees and were the last to depart from the roof of the american embassy in saigon. this program is just under an hour. >> well, good evening, everyone,

and welcome to r.j. julia. my name's john, i'm here to introduce our author for the evening. you may know that r.j. julia is now in its 21st year. we think it's an extraordinary bookstore, especially in these times. we know it's a busy world out there, so we're glad you're here. time and again we hear from customers and visitor of all kinds that it is events like these that bring authors from all points of the spectrum to this spot, to this community that make this store special. "last men out" is the book we're here to introduce. i thought i'd begin simply by saying that my daughter is in ho chi minh city now. i skypeed with her this morning. she's a recent college graduate, english major, and she is in

saigon to teach english. as you might imagine, it's been an extraordinary experience for a young woman, i'm very proud of her because it was all her doing. i had nothing -- [laughter] i had no say in it whatsoever. [laughter] she got herself there on her own dime, and she's about two months in. spoke with her this morning, as i say, it's on skype, you know, so it's pretty cool to see her. and i asked her last week to visit the reunification museum. and she'd already been there once but had not spent a whole lot of time. went back and, in a nutshell, here's her report. it was eerie. the reunification palace, aka independence palace, is pretty much exactly the way it was in

april 1975. and so to go through it with a vietnamese tour leader, tour guide and to see, you know, the inside of those wallses and to hear those stories was an extraordinary experience for her. yes, it was eerie, she was the only american in the group. there were other tourists, a pretty good number, she said, from all over the world. and her last comment was that they said almost nothing about the war itself. it was really all focused on the presidential succession and what had taken place inside, inside that building. so that's a point of departure for me. the only other thing i'd like to say in introducing bob is i'm guessing that most of you in this room know this story much better than i do, and i know

just from some of you who came in this evening that you lived this story. i was blown away by the detail in this book. it does read like a thriller, it's true. how did bob and his co-author know what went on almost hour by hour merchandise the heads -- inside the heads of the men who lived it? he didn't make it up. this, as you see in the afterword and in the bibliography of the book, this is based on extraordinarily resourceful reporting and interviewing of the people who were there. so it's a real pleasure to introduce bob drury, author of "last men out." >> thank you, john. [applause] and i thank your communist

daughter also. [laughter] well, thanks for coming out tonight, folks. i appreciate it. i've been here before, it's always a pleasure to be here at r.j. julia. i was here four years ago, i think. tom clavin and i wrote a book together, and i think he was here two years ago. i think i even recognize some of your faces in here. in fact, tom was scheduled to be here, but i wanted to be here so badly that i traded him off. i traded him the pritzker military library in chicago for r.j. julia. so, again, i say thank you. i like being here. for those people who do know our previous books, our previous collaborations, as you probably know tom and i would like to chronicle the adventures of ordinary men in extraordinary circumstances. i like reading about generals as much as the next guy whether it's patton, whether it's ike,

whether it's peter the great, whether it's napoleon, whether it's montgomery. well, not so much montgomery, he's a brit, and i'm a good irishman. [laughter] maybe we'll substitute for him, but i think you get my drift. as much as i like reading about these great men, what i like writing about and what tom and i like researching about is the ordinary grunts. and if you're going to spend several years delving into a situation, into the lives of people who want to destroyer or who held the hill in korea when it was 40 below and they were outnumbered 15,000 to 1 or whether it's a group of young men in saigon in 1975 who held it together when all hell was breaking across, that's why in particular this book, "last men out," was really such a pleasure to research, to report, to interview. the writing, eh, you know,

that's a pain, but the writing is also a pain, and that's the end result of having fun doing all this other stuff. also those -- there's some scary bang-bang in our last two books, in fox company and in halsey. not to say there isn't scary bang-bang in the story of the fall of saigon. there is, and there are brave young men who did not come home alive from that fall of saigon. but they did make it out of -- they didn't make it out of that chaos. but we feel that "last men out" is, it's one of our best character studies. and the men that we interviewed, the after-action reports that we read, the oral histories we delved into, it painted such a wonderful picture. perhaps wonderful's not the right adjective, it painted such a vivid picture of what was happening in these past 36 hours as the city of saigon and the nation of the republic of

vietnam, south vietnam fell apart. now, as i said, this is kind of a tick tock book of the last 36 hours, but i think i'm going to have to set the tone, give you a little background. so what happens as i'm sure some of you know very well, in 1973 the united states, south vietnam and north vietnam, the democratic republic of north vietnam signed the paris peace accords. now, according to those accords everybody hoped and wished, especially in the united states, that we were going to have another korea situation, that it was going to be a country divide inside two, there was going to be a dmz, there was going to be a peace line for whenever. the north vietnamese never had any idea of standing by these accords. they were constantly probing, probing, probing. they even were allowed to leave 130,000 men, construction workers, in -- on the soil of the republic of vietnam. finally, in the fall of 1974 led by a charismatic and strategic

and tactical genius and, unfortunately-named genius, general dung, they decided to invade. they broke the paris peace accords, and we knew they were doing this. we had satellites, we had b-52 photos, we had everything. but congress was just so sick of the war in vietnam. we were out. we had some marine security guards, msgs, at provincial consulars. we had a platoon in saigon, we had some advisers in, we just didn't want -- we were in the middle of a depression here in the united states. recession, i'm sorry. we just didn't want to spend anymore money. we wanted to wipe our hands of vietnam. it was a bad deal. dung didn't believe that. he thought us capitalist running dogs. we have something up our sleeve. so he probed at first sending out scout teams, small combat units. they met with no resistance. the south vietnamese army fell apart.

their officers deserted, men were, men were left leaderless, nowhere to go, did not know what to do. what happened was is after a while general dung, the north vietnamese general dung said, you know what? the americans aren't going to do anything. he was expecting a b-52 strike like the last time north vietnam had invaded south vietnam. it never came. so gradually he picked up speed, and he picked up speed. and the north vietnamese army, 150,000 men -- more than 150,000 men -- sluiced through south vietnam like there was, like the mississippi right now is sluicing through the gates that it's overrunning. provinces, cities fell, denang became a swollen, seething cauldron of deserters, retreaters. as the south vietnamese soldiers

retreated, they raped and they looted, and civilians, we had so scared about what the godless communists were going to do to us, denang just became this swollen city. finally we decided, we have to have a plan, we have to get people out of here. we tried an evac, a fixed-wig and hell -- wing and helicopter. our allies thought we were cutting and running, which we were, and started firing on the american aircraft coming in. the msg unit, a small unit in denang, almost got into several fire fights with their ostensible allies until they were finally snuck out in the back of a garbage truck. finally, a sea lift was instituted. the u.s. and south vietnam took as many boats, barges, ships as they could, sent them up there, and it became a total mess. women were tossing their babies into the water, throwing

civilians overboard and commandeering these fishing smacks to get south. it was just, it was really ugly. there were no commanders, no south vietnam commanders to keep any kind of order, and we learned something from denang and that was, ooh, a sea lift from anywhere else is going to be kind of dicey. so, so now general dung, he hadn't planned on taking saigon until perhaps late in 1975, but most likely in 1976 after the rainy season. yet here he is. he finds himself -- this started in late 1974. in early april, mid april 1975 he finds himself with an early of 150,000 people encircling saigon. he's going back and forth with it. dung was a smart man. he had been a soldier, he was the only member of the politburo who was born a peasant. he was an athletic man. if i knew how to work the clicker, i would show you a

photo of him. maybe i will later. [laughter] he knew that now was the time to strike. it was just what were the americans going to do, the americans in saigon? now as i said, there was this marine security guard battalion, but it wasn't really a battalion. it was between 50 and 60 people. and three days before the seventh fleet which was cruising the waters off south vietnam, international waters off the south china sea, they sent in a platoon of fleet marines. they came in wearing leisure -- according to the paris peace accords, we weren't allowed to have more than x amount of soldiers in south vietnam, and the msgs pretty much took up that quota. so they sent 50 young men with haircuts like mine, and they had them wearing leisure suits and carrying their guns and uniforms in duffel bags. the nco in charge of the msgs in sigh gone, oh, yeah, they're never going to know we're here. so we got saigon, and there's all kinds of americans still in

there. not only civilians, but state department, spooks, cia, there's army advisers, air force advisers, navy advisers, but let's face it, the two main players in saigon right now are the ambassador, graham martin. an elegant man. tall, shock of white hair, always had a jaunty cigarette dangling from his lips. unfortunately, he was a young man. he was only in his late 50s, but he looked about 75 because he was sick. he wassing ifly sick, he had walking -- he was physically sick, he had walking pneumonia, and he was under a mental stress i just can't imagine. he was taking drugs for an old car accident, and he was deluded. now, when i say deluded, i'm not trying to have pejorative, but he thought he was the only man, he was the ambassador in south vietnam, he thought he was the only man who could cut a deal with the north vietnamese who are slowly and surely encircling saigon.

and he would not call for any kind of evacuation because he thought a deal was imminent. his powers of diplomacy were going to cut a deal with the north vietnamese. he was going to bypass general dung sitting out there 18 miles away, he was going to use the russians to put pressure on hanoi, and it was delusional. so his counterfoil, so to speak, was major jim keane, a marine major. he was in charge of the msg battalions from new delhi to tokyo. but, of course, saigon where the biggest msg post at the time, it had the most marines. it had -- even more than moscow. and it was considered a combat zone even though 1973 paris peace accords, we're no longer at war, it was still considered a combat posting. so jim keane and his top, tom valdez, his master sergeant, his noncommissioned officer in charge of these msgs, they triedering they could to dissuade -- tries everything

they could to dissuade ambassador martin from trying to continue to think he'd negotiate. we've got to get the evacuation going. i mean, the evacuation that finally happened was like plan z. plan a was fixed wing from every airfield in south vietnam. well, that -- they were counting on way city, they were counting on ben ho, boom, those airfields are gone. there was one airfield left in our hands in saigon. so plan b was an evacuation by sea. well, we saw what happened in denang. it was a cluster hump. and that's not the word the marines used. we can't do that. plus the navy, the north vietnamese cut off access to the coast so quickly, quicker than we had expected, that we can't, we don't want to start another war. congress is not going to fund another war. so they went through all these plans. they finally got down to, well,

we've got to send helicopters. we've got to start sending them in. but ambassador martin would not send them in. he kept this delusion that he could negotiate a peace. so, finally, enough is enough for general dung, and he thinks he's going to poke a little stick at the americans, get 'em out quicker because he knows once the americans go, he's got the country. he saw what happened to the fourth largest army. south vietnam had the fourth largest army in the world. he went through it like you know what through a goose. he said, i'm going to take saigon. there's troops down in the delta, but i'm going to encircle them and take them the same way. let's get these americans out of here. i don't want to start another war. i will if i have to. they're capitalist running dogs, he hated us. but my orders are don't start another war. so before the morning of april 29th the ambassador martin had ordered jim keane to split his msg detachment. he said i need extra people out

at the airport. there was a defense attache's office adjacent to the airport. it's where we had run everything during the vietnam war. all the big generals were stationed there. now it was still the same buildings, but it just had advisers. and he said i need men out at the dao because if we're going to do a helicopter evacuation, it's got to be from the defense attache's office adjacent to the airport. so keane's like, no, i can't split my command. i only have 55 people, i can't split my command. and here's something about the msgs, they're the only branch of the marine corps that takes their orders from a civilian they're not in a normal chain of command. so what the state department says usually through an rso stationed at every embassy, and they said send 'em out there. so keane went to valdez, and he said we've got to send 16 guys out there. you pick 'em.

don't get any of my newbies in trouble. now, there were a couple kids who had just come into south vietnam. one was only in there a week, one was only in there a couple months. valdez is thinking, you know what? the north vietnamese want us out of saigon so badly, they're never going to bomb the airport. i'm going to send my inexperienced newbies out there. before dawn general dung rocketed and shelled the airport with heavy artillery, 6,000 landing every minute. one of those shells landed right awe cross -- i told you i didn't know how to work this, but one of those shells landed right on a guard post. there was general dung, there's ambassador martin, there's major jim keane. there's darwin judge. he had been in country two months. he looks about 14 -- i have a 14 year-old son, this guy looks like him. there's charles mcmahon. they were manning guard posts, they were obliterated by a

rocket. dead. ambassador runs out there in the morning, he gets into it with the army general out there. we've got to -- the airport, the airfields are now, you can't land a fixed wing. they're cratered. and martin still, in his delusional state, we can fix this. we can fix this and start getting the c-130s in here. he gets back to the embassy, and he -- and major jim keane. jim keane knows his two men are dead now, his two kids. and he says i don't want you to report this to the marine corps chain of command. major keane says, what do you mean? if they find out these guys are dead, they're going to pull the plug on me. and keane is thinking, pull the plug on you? the plug is already pulled. plug is pulled for darwin judge. plug is pulled for charles mcmahon. that's when keane realized he could not directly disobey an order from the ambassador, but he and valdez were going to have to manage this evacuation. with the marines they had on

hand. so if i could, let me veer off here and i'll just tell you a little about these marines. once again, they don't take orders, they're not in the marine corps chain of command. they take orders from civilians. and aside from tom valdez who had served as an amtrak platoon leader during the war in vietnam, jim keane who had been an artillery man in the war in vietnam and a staff sergeant named mike sullivan had served in the long-range patrols would call in artillery to hill, and those were the only three men who had any experience with war. the rest of these guys were kids. and i, obviously, can't go through all of them. but, i mean, just some of them. big john, big, bad john from boston, big blond john. maybe the strongest man in the outfit.

he, when he heard charles mcmahon four days before he got killed, when he heard him in saigon when he first came in to chow and he had his accent, john took him under his wing. he was broken hearted when he got killed. bobby frane. every time i look at a name, he's my favorite character. they called him body beautiful. he had a knack. back when saigon was calmer times a lot of the daughters and sisters and maybe some of the wives of american civilians working in the embassy would come in, and fs there was a cro which was like a pool and a little store and a liquor store and a bank, and everybody would end up -- it was within the embassy compound, and all these gals would always end up there. and bobby had this sixth sense. before word even got around there was a hot babe in, bobby would be out by the pool. you know? it was before six-pack abs were

fashionable, but he had 'em. they called him the body beautiful. [laughter] duane, the black market king. short little guy. funny guy from -- he could get you if you want add chinese porcelain sword, if you wanted a french hooker, if you wanted a new cash rater for the motor pool, the black market king could get it for you. and he had this rough exterior. he thought, you know, i don't make deals, but whenever anybody was in trouble, short of money, he would pull them aside without anybody knowing, and he'd say, hey, here you go. this'll tide you over until next payday. that kind of guy. a guy from your neighborhood, steve shuller. steve was from sommers, connecticut. he might have been the most in shape guy. they called him the pt king, the physical therapy king. he lived on a farm right up in somers, grew up in a farm shooting little critters out in the woods.

his whole life all he wanted to do was join force recon which is the marine special forces, and he envisioned himself crawling through the jungles and fight anything vietnam. by the time he got old enough, the war was over. so the next best thing was when he got pulled as an msg. now, these msgs, what happens is commanders take the top 1% -- they're less than 1% of the marine corps. the company commanders pluck the top guys in their units, and they send them to -- they have to go through a selection process. and if they get to msg school, there's still a 30 or 40% attrition rate. so these guys are kids, but they're tough kids, and they're smart kids, and they're dedicated kids. even mike sullivan who wasn't so much of a kid, he was in his late 20s, he's the one who fought in vietnam, he joined because he got drafted in 1967. and he went to his father who had been a merchant marine during world war ii who had watched the marines land at i

woe gee that, and he came home and said, dad, i joined the marines. what are you nuts? dad, i got drafted. i figure the marines will probably teach me how to not die. the army's just going to use me as cannon fodder. anyway, these are some of the kids that, boom, not only the personal tension between the ambassador and keane, but now the city of saigon is turning into a churning, broiling, chaotic mess. they have to keep it together. so the original plan was everybody from the embassy was going to go over to the defense attache's office, and we're all going to helicopter out from there. well, keane and valdez said, no, that's not going to happen. we're not going to be able to get through these choked streets. saigon is like d everything nang, there's two million whether you want to call them deserters, defeated soldiers, but they're walking around with guns and they're very pissed off at the americans who are,

obviously, leaving. so all this is going on. the ambassador had henry kissinger on his side. graham martin and kissinger were kind of left over from nixon legacy, and they kept saying if nixon were still in office, you know, we'd be giving general dung a good dose of vitamin b-52. gerald ford wanted to wash his hands of it. so kissinger had the most to lose. they kept, kept stalling. finally, the marines, the marine high command, the secretary of defense and gerald ford convinced ambassador martin and kissinger, it's time to get out. so so begins a day, april 29, 1975, of just manic helicopters in, out. in at 5500 feet, out at 4500 feet. small arms fire the entire time. is it coming from the south vietnamese? nva snipers? the msgs are up on the roof.

they're working 24 hours shoveling classified information into these furnaces. they could see fire fight's between the few army of the republic of vietnam who are still fighting. who are still standing tall and fighting. they're watching these fire nights while they shoveled $5 million in cash into these furnaces, mesh cash. who know -- american cash. i remember there was a story that steve schuler wanted to steal some of that money, but i think somebody stopped him. [laughter] but that was a false story anyway. so all day long this goes on. so finally during the daylight hours they manage to clear out the defense attache's office. the fleet marines send a small platoon over to the embassy. now the only thing that's left in the city is this one little outpost, united states embassy, a three square mile outpost. and the crowds around it which had been 2,000, which had been

10,000, which had been 50,000 are now 60,000, and a lot of them are armed and p'd off soldiers. so all day long this is going on. some of the stories, i mean, i can't -- i know we don't have time here tonight, but some of the stories, keane and valdez and to an extent mike sullivan are kind of like the little dutch boy, they're plugging holeses in the dike. here, lock that gate, lock that gate. the guys are standing there, and they have to let in americans; american reporters, state department guys who were stuck downtown and there's a few brits left in town. and they're standing at the gate, and they're lifting people over the gate. and while they're doing it, people are coming up to them, and they're opening bags of jewels or criewg rands, big john looks down and there's a bag of criewg rands. one woman, bobby's watching one time, and this woman -- her

husband's making his way through the crowd with his elbows. the woman's carrying something. looks like a little -- and he goes, oh, shit, no. they get close, the husband takes it, heaves it up. it's a baby. gets caught in the barbed wire on top. .. >> he starts was dishes.

wash dishes officers' club. i remember he turned around and said who am i to play god like this. to my to say, yes, you can come in. in the meanwhile, a thousand vietnamese inside the compound already, full of fat cats, sons of politicians that did not have to go into the army and bought their way out, fat cats with suitcases. you know what's in the suitcases, smuggling out golden modules, money. in these poor ms cheese are on the gates. i have to make this decision. even though there were kids they had to make this decision. 1920 year-old kids. iraq join the marines to fight for their country, fight in vietnam for the country. now they're put in this position behind the politicians and the brass. it was an ugly scene.

it went on all night. the big see stallions, the army chinook, the helicopter that is emblematic of vietnam, they were landing in the parking lot. the ch46 was landing on the roof. they had an assembly line. the deal was empty. now this is the embassy. keane, sea stallions are made to carry 30, 35 marine spirits is backing 70 vietnamese smaller, lighter vietnamese. letting them take one back. after a while now backs. the crowd, so many people are sneaking in the crowd doesn't seem like it is getting any smaller. this goes on all day and all night. the line of the vehicle they have to form a ring of white. the silica pilots which is magnificent. you have seen a helicopter took off. the only room these big choppers have to come down with straight down, philip. katie would throw 75 on. if the guy could get error he'd

take five off. if he got a little air straight up. one crashed and there goes your chopper. so they're coming in on the roof, coming in below. total chaos. finally he sends word, we have to get the ambassadors out. the ambassador, what the hell is he still doing here? he will leave. what do you mean he won't leave. this is going on in washington when one of my favorite characters of the book, handsome as the day as long, he looks like a movie star, he has been flying 18 straight hours. he lands. the marine, not comes out. colonel, you will take the ambassador hot onion textron. yes, sir. the don't ask why.

you're a marine colonel. you don't ask a three-star wide. he gets in. lying in. he and his co-pilot such taking small arms fire. they can use the 45 and 5500 lines anymore. there are flying ground level. they have to fly under the crowds. the land on the roof. long story short because i know we are getting a little long. is just such a great story. you have the little, scribbles something. one of the ambassador's personal security guards come up and says yes. direct orders from the president. i'm not leaving this roof until i have the ambassador. he's like, oh, shed. i'm lying to the ambassador's guards. sure enough he's there for good 20 minutes. the ambassador comes out. port, decrepit, broken graham

martin realizes that it's time to go. some pms jesus still manning the gates and the walls. the message does on. but net up. he goes downstairs. but net up. not only other still 10,000 people still trying to get an there are five or 600 people that have already gotten in legally. he is let him. orders. but men up. all the marines get together casually back into the embassy. tickets a little violent. they shut the door. they disable the elevator spirited run upstairs. by this point there are 60 of them, fleet marine some extent with the marine security guards. still dark. not dawn. they give up to the roof and all hell breaks loose downstairs. the people steel and -- people

outside the gate stole a fire truck, broke through the gate, broke through the big mahogany doors and made their way up the stairs to the sixth floor where the marines are barricaded against them. some are looking over. 400 who were left, who were supposed to get out i just standing there. they call them sticks. six of 60 people, just standing there with their luggage and kids and wives waiting for the americans to come and save them. once again, i'm telling you. people were broken hearted that there. what happens is we get -- there was a brief pause where the helicopters to down because of flying time. even bigger marine general put out an order that said anybody who doesn't go and get my marines of court-martial them. it started flying again. they come and. no more sea stallion.

jim keane does a head count and realizes stripped of vests and helmets and weapons, not going to get all men. i'm not going to get my msg. he turns to valdez. give me tim mcintyre with. the silica dust take off. eleven and left. tim has cited the sun comes up. it is the most beautiful sunrise beautifully clear. the most beautiful sunrise that keane has ever seen in his life. and in washington kissinger holds a press conference. he gets up at the same podium where two years before he announced peace in our time after the paris peace accord. the very same podium he now announces that all americans are

out. when he said it wanted to get out, some reporters remained behind. henry kissinger sees in a. they was first in the we have a 11 marines and accounted for. what do you mean and accounted for? in the confusion what happened was when the ambassador went out at 3:48 a.m. his call sign, the tiger is out, the tiger is out of the state's buried in the original evacuation plan the investor was going to be the last relief. there were still working. the tiger is out of the stage. nobody left. so the 11th marine security guards, the dedicated kids are up on this roof. the barricade the door. dawn comes. small arms fire increases. is it coming from the cyprus?

probably a little of both. the best walking around the camp perimeter counting the weapons. everyone has an m-16. a couple of shotguns. fish what is this. this is nothing. a hundred 60,000 hardened angry soldiers out there. he senses that they are wondering where the chopper is a pity call the meeting. here's the deal. general dung does not want to start a war. he tells us starts a war. you know what, small units things go wrong. there could be a small unit fight. we don't know what's coming to the door. i don't want you firing back at anyone. i want your asses in the dirt.

he didn't say asses. i want everybody laying low, and i want everybody on their toes. we're going to get out of here. he didn't believe it himself. in his after action report he was unsure. so i msg from long island smuggled to bottles that he had been carrying. a bottle of johnny walker black and a bottle of johnny walker red. he calls the msg except for valdez and keane. they sit indian style and pass the boss around. keane is over and a quarter. what is going on? i don't know. we have to start coming up to the contingency plan. the embassy itself had a rocket screen. it was kind of a concrete latticework to deflect rockets. they're looking over. get some rope.

we don't have any rope. chain. what do you think? as they're speaking keane looks over and sees there is something going on in this circle. to see what's going on. valdez walks over just in time to hear bobby saying, no tiger cages for me. we'll take a vote right now. if those groups are going to take my dog tax i wanted to have to dig through a pile of dead dukes before they get their hands on them. and somebody said let's take a vote. a marine corps is not a democracy, folks. but katie kind of knows what is going on. valdez knows what is going on. let's take a vote. it is unanimous. the vote to fight. there will become prisoners. valdez in the back of his mind is thinking -- in the front of his mind thinking, they're not going to come up the steps. they won't waste any more men.

they're going to raid. two or three shells. were all dead. world did appear. so they kind of disperse. the sun is up. all the in -- msg disperse. the british embassy across the street. pennington, a hardscrabble kid, he grew up with the dickens out of it. trying to kill. his father was an alcoholic who rented him out to subsistence share farmers who captain barron barefoot in a shack. the marine corps was the only family he had ever known. he is looking around at the ten other marines.

it is more than being a rather small more than loving each other. we are each other. we are each other. dave norman, 19 euro from ohio upon a helipad. he can hear the clanking of the soviet tanks. he can hear the trance, over the bridge. he is thinking, i don't mind dying with these men. i just wish i could get to see mom and dad one more time before i died. if i'm going to die i'm proud to die with these men. once they had opened the gates at this man arrested with a gun and been netted him. he stuck his finger in there. he lost consciousness for a moment. stuck a dirty rag in there.

he wouldn't evacuated. el up on the roof picking through some of the clothes looking for clean t-shirt or at least not so much a dirty t-shirt so he could stuff up the policy, bloody wound. these men are all alone with their thoughts. not much younger it than the guys he is in charge of pretty is thinking how proud he is if we diapir somebody better tell this goddamn story. the sun is getting higher. it is getting hotter out. there is silence on the roof. the next thing happens, if you want to know the next thing that happens you better read the damn book. thank you very much for coming. i appreciated. i will take questions, but i would like to say something first affected. actually two things. i think a few of you know. in my day job so to speak and

downrange a lot. i have been to a rock in afghanistan. i run in to these msg. the legacies to thank the and not so much worried. we have enough troops over there. i have been. tashkent andy's pakistan on monrovia and liberia. these kids, and they are kids, kids today is like there were kids back then, these kids that are guarding our embassies, no matter how you feel they are the best trained marines, the most dedicated marines. just like the marines, the

heroic marines, disliked her road marines of saigon in 1975, that legacy continues in day marine security guard unit. i think it is something -- once again, i don't know how you feel, but it is something we should all be proud of. i am. and one other thing i will say is that, you know, i told you about that guy who lived up the street, steve shuler he took the bayonet and would leave. well, you can give him hand. he is sitting right over there. [applause] [applause] i noticed he frowned. i didn't see a smile on his face. i was like, oh, sure it. anyway, does anybody have any questions? >> that was yesterday, and today

yesterday. i am assuming there are some conclusions as you do more research. casino the main conclusion -- >> my question is, did we learn anything? >> best said. you know and i know we have evacuation plans for capitol hill. every hot spot and snake pit in the world. the one thing i do not think we have learned in the have no proof of this, no documentation. just from traveling in these countries and being downrange, we twisted south did not too much. this was something, we thought there would help us get out. we might be putting the same tustin baguette interval. anybody else? thank you for coming. if any of you have a book your to sign a will be glad to.

thanks. and the question is for steve. when a minute. hold on. no questions for steve? yak, yak. still little neck. i got hurt saving. anyway, thank you. appreciated. [applause] [applause] you know what to offer the hell of it, you don't have to fill in the spirit of tell you, sir you. there is general dung and his younger days, the vietnamese take the chinese but, he was in charge of that. ambassador martin, i found a really good total offense. that is a really good father showing how sick he was. he just was not i well man. major jim keane who fought not only in the vietnam war, charles

mcmahon, valdez. to see looked like an amtrak guy? wow, i'm not telling you the end. you would still bounce off his chest. agassi now. dick cheney. donald rumsfeld. henry kissinger, president ford. a good sub story. run down the river from the only provincial consular he had. this says yacht club. six marines and the consulate. not only looks like, thompson but acted like imperious a typical story. mike sullivan. nice glasses. right when they formed the v.

there are backing up. that is going down the river. that is actually at the time was corporal steve hastings. he went on to become the longest serving yet this is marine in the history of the court. he fought iraq in afghanistan and only get out last february. hanson jerry berry, the chopper pilot, still handsome. the boys on the roof. the burn barrels. anything they couldn't burn on the roof there were put into burn barrels. who is that? is that you? that is steve counting the cash. iconic photo. that is 18 hours before. >> everything going on from the stories you're telling now, how well do you think that nixon,

ford, and johnson, how well do you think they knew what was going on? >> they knew very well. >> do you think their permission was accurate? >> mcnamara has pretty much admitted that we knew this was a civil war that we should have never gotten involved in. i think one of the reasons, the dichotomy of this book, people ask me. eyewitnesses, people who were there writing about a heroic evacuation. a bunch of kids, ordinary men, extraordinary circumstances. i think that is why ford wanted nothing to do with it. yes, sir. >> has been a lot of my time updating the rosters, and this is personnel.

how many actually made out. >> we don't know. 50,000. the only figures we have but he didn't make get out, north vietnam admitted they sent 180,000. re-education camps. so we will never know how many died. we did get close to 50 does not. >> a loaded up all the ships and sent them out the saigon river. >> right. before that. >> that's how my counterpart got out. i met him. >> thank you for your service. i appreciated. >> anybody else? i think that's it. once again, i think he. at thank you for coming. but singh named?

jack? captain jack. >> navy retired. >> all right. [laughter] bob, the pictures and the book. i will be signing them on the other side. i hope he will take it home with you. thank you all very much for coming. [applause] [applause] >> book tv has over 100,000 twitter followers. be a part of the excitement. paula book tv on twitter to get publishing news, scheduling updates, other information, and talk directly with others during

live programming. twitter.com/booktv. >> part of the book group is "twelve," an imprint that is rather unique in publishing circles. the new publisher and editor in chief is cary goldstein. how're you liking your new job? >> love it. love it. as you know, from the very beginning in 2006. it is wonderful. >> us talk about some of your upcoming books. last year you published a book by christopher hichens, his autobiography. i see apollo is coming out. when is that coming out? >> published in september. basically it is about two dozen to. it covers all sorts of territory, literary criticism, a

general political commentary, profiles, annoyances and other amusements. international affairs. a section recalling offshore accounts they read it gives a real sense of the purview as such a commentator. >> and right next to that. at stanford. possibly best known as an authority on intellectual copper to the property rights. there is now at harvard were he is the head of the school of ethics. this particular book is about moneys nefarious influence on education. probably more than any other time in history americans have said that money controls and our system has been corrupted. mary agnes is the illness that is the corruption of our system,

not any particular corrupt individual, but the general system and put together a very cogent and radical fix to this problem including a new constitutional convention. >> when is that coming out? >> october. >> that is quite a cover. >> thank you. >> of focus group. you are the premier authority. cary goldstein, mn outlaws. probably best known as a novelist. the other frankenstein. this book is a group barratry. what is fascinating to me is that the first half of this book covers capote, baldwin, british writers. what is amazing to me is that those riders are now no longer really thought about as gay writers.

ironically the second half of the book because and stonewall and larry kramer, a red-and-white, what you find is a more specific generalization of gay literature. becomes more insular and reaches a narrow audience with the few exceptions. but it gives a very broad perspective on the history of the literature and of these writers in particular have impact that went beyond the literary and affected our political culture as well. >> late 2008, early 2009 called the geography of lift. and that but he went around the world looking for the happiest places onerous. he begins with an element with literature and that to be caused by an unreasonable deadline imposed by an editor. nevertheless when he is in the

hospital it occurs to him when the doctor asked him if he found a place that fits that he hasn't. he sets off on another journey to find their religion that works for him. he covers some religions we know well and others we don't. he goes all the way to nepal and finds an american named blaine. he finds himself with a group. a very serious study, but it also has a eric stringer hard with the objective irony. >> and finally, cary goldstein, time for outbreaks. >> this is a really exciting book. this book, a phenomenon in europe originally published as of 4,000 word pamphlet in october. it has since sold almost 2 million copies. we're calling it time for at rage. by