transmitted to new york and then relayed to the world. president min of south vietnam announced wednesday an unconditional surrender to the forces of north vietnam. as i was on the phone, two north vietnamese soldiers walked into our offices on the fourth floor of the building in the historic square in the heart of saigon. peter, matt and i offered them cokes from an old rusted white refrigerator and some stale pound cake, all that we had left in the bureau. we took out some maps and they showed us the attack routes they had followed into saigon. they took out their wallets and pulled out some family photos

and talked about how long they had not seen their loved ones. and it struck me then that they were no different really than the other vietnamese, the south vietnamese, nor for that matter, the americans. all of whom had been killing each other. they all carried snapshots of missed wives and children and mothers and fathers and they felt the same loneliness. that's how the war ended for me vietnam was our finest hour, a story that was the defining event of our lives and our profession. what a pity so many of our beloved friends died there. for many of us, covering wars will be the biggest thing we do in our lives. our central experience.

and it will assure us lasting membership in one of the most exclusive clubs in the world. so we gather here this fall evening to look back over our finest hours, to recapture the excitement and camaraderie of those times to see things the way they were, to review our lives, and to celebrate each other and those beloved ones who have passed away over the years. it is a great honor for me to be part of this celebration tonight, to sit among those whom i admire and have loved for a lifetime. thank you very much for having me here. [ applause ] >> good evening.

i'm bill plante. there were not many things to laugh about in the last days of saigon and south vietnam. we were concerned about getting the people who had worked with us over the years out of the country as kevin delany told you, and in large measure we did. there were, however, a few light moments. deadline pressures did not loosen up at the very end. and the last battle that the south vietnamese army fought was in a place called swan lock not too far outside saigon. some of us had gone down there every day because, to tell the truth, there was nothing else to do. the only other thing to do was to go and cover the lines of thousands of people outside the u.s. embassy hoping for visas to come to this country and that was even more of a downer than the battle, let me tell you. so we want to swan lock and we went as far as we could until the fire fight made us go back. some of our colleagues rushed up one day in a jeep. they were on deadline and they

wanted us to understand that. they said what's going on up there? well, we said, those of us who had been up there, there's a fire fight up there, there are mortars incoming. there's some sniper fire. it's not very pleasant. and one of the them picked up a tape recorder and said mortar fire incoming up the road, not the very pleasant, and they turned around and got out of there. but they made their deadline. i saw their story when i got out of vietnam. thank you all for being here. it's been a long evening. it's been wonderful to share this with you. [ applause ] >> i'm ron nessen and i covered the vietnam war for nbc. i've always regretted that i was not in saigon at the end of the war with my reporting colleagues. but after five tours, my role had changed. by the end of the war,

i was the white house press secretary to president ford. so the end for me began in march 1975 when president ford went to palm springs, california, for his annual easter golfing vacation. every day on the first tee and on the 18th green, he was bombarded with questions from reporters who had seen tv pictures of the south vietnamese army dissolving, soldiers shoving women and children out of the way to scramble aboard evacuation planes and ships. and president ford dispatched his army chief of staff to assess the situation. and he also sent his irrepressible photographer, david kennerly, whom many of you know, he had spent 2 1/2 years in vietnam for a time. and president ford knew that david would give him a plain english appraisal of what was happening. and he did. david came back and said the generals are bullshitting you.

meanwhile, the networks had asked the white house to help evacuate their american and vietnamese staffers, as you heard, aboard chartered jets. and when that work got a surprise when one of its vietnamese cameramen showed up for the evacuation flight with both of his wives. on april 28th, the north vietnamese began shelling the airport and the evacuation flights were stopped. and the president gave the order to commence operation frequent wind. 34 helicopters shuttling back and forth from carriers on the south china sea to lift people off the roof of the embassy in the final withdrawal. it lasted for 19 hours. during that time, the white house staff, which was feeling great deal of stress and depression, especially david and

myself and some others who had been in vietnam, we tried to relieve that with gallows humor. at one point henry kissinger came into don rumsfeld's office and proclaimed, i am the only secretary of state who ever lost two countries in three weeks. first cambodia, now vietnam. as the second dawn approached in saigon, the helicopter pilots were getting weary, but ambassador graham martin wouldn't leave without a direct order from the president. and so the order was given. and the air lift ended. 1,000 americans and vietnamese were lift out of the compound, but thousands left clawing at the gates. it was then time to announce officially the end of the war. and kissinger and i walked across to the old executive office building for a briefing.

and i was astounded that the turnout was so small considering the historic moment, but it was late in the afternoon and reporters were close to deadline and many decided to watch the announcement the in their offices. and i thought to myself, this war is not ending where a whimper or a bang, it's ending with a yawn. and i read on behalf of president ford the statement that the evacuation has now been completed, this action closes a chapter in the american experience. the president asks all americans to close ranks to avoid recriminations about the past, to look ahead to the many goals we share and to work together on the great task that remained to be accomplished. when kissinger and i came off the stage, we were told that the evacuation, in fact, was not over. that 129 marines were still in the embassy compound waiting for helicopters to come back and pick them up. and we then haggled over how to explain the erroneous

announcement that the evacuation was over. and to break the tension, kissinger again tried some bleak humor. he said i guess you could say the end of the evacuation is at hand. a reference to his premature 1972 declaration that peace was at hand. some in the white house proposed not saying anything about the erroneous announcement and the delayed evacuation of the marines. but don rumsfeld objected to that and said this war has been marked by so many lies and evasions, that it's not right to end with one last lie. so we didn't. we did announce that there had been a mistake in pronouncement that the evacuation was over, it wasn't, but it soon would be. everyone obviously in the white house was feeling sad about the occasion. and again particularly those of us who had been there. and we did manage to laugh at one last kennerly joke.

those of who you know david know that he is famous for his good news/bad news jokes. and he said the good news is the war is over. the bad news is we lost. [ applause ] imagine a monument to history in a town where history is made with every news cycle. by 1890 the united states was still a young country by most standards, was old enough to have a past worth preserving. and communicating in the classroom. and distilling for lessens of leadership. grounded in the birth pangs of a nation. this memorial in the shadow of washington's constitution hall recognizes the patriotic quartet of women who that year founded the national society, daughters of the american revolution.

sculptor gertrude vanderbilt whitney, herself a member, might well have been thinking of cleo, goddess of history in fashioning classically draped figurable woman, nine feet in height, her arms reaching out to, what, the past or the future? the elegant landscaping, the overall effect recalls whitney's other prominent work in the nation's capital, the titanic memorial near washington channel. only here instead of a flanking bench there's a low stone wall with bronze medallions honoring ugenia washington and mary smith lockwood. as charter members of the dar, these four women invited others, from revolutionary era combatants to celebrate their service and promote greater public appreciation of the

freedoms for which their ancestors fought. up next is a 1967 cbs news special report titled "the ordeal of con thien" about an ongoing battle in the vietnam war. cbs news correspondent mike wallace hosts this half hour special report. >> because of the following cbs news special report, the program normally seen at this time will not be presented today. >> we can't reach those big guns and they keep dropping in. like a big bull's-eye on the top

of the hill. you can't be safe. you can be lucky. that's it. >> you can't be safe. you can be lucky. >> that's it. >> stuff landing all over. bouncing off you. and you're just scared every time. and it gets worse. closer they get, the more they throw. the more you get scared. and you get up, wonderful feeling just to be alive after one of those. >> if i live 100 years, i'll never ever be able to tell the story the way it really happened. these young kids, you just run up to them, when we were all boxed in, they were all over our perimeter, we're throwing grenades and i got pretty close. just run up to one of these kids and say marine, we're going to get out of here, aren't we? and the kid looked up to you and say you're damn right we are, skipper. >> those marines are talking about a place named con thien,

an obscure american outpost in vietnam. con thien is a bitterly exposed target just two miles below the bmz. american marines have been under first there since last may. in just the last 4 weeks, they've suffered over 70 dead, 1,000 wounded. in the next half hour, we shall examine the ordeal of con thien. >> this is a cbs news special report. "the ordeal of con thien." this broadcast is brought to you by -- here is cbs news correspondent mike wallace. >> con thien is here. two miles south of the demilitarized zone at the narrow top of south vietnam, 12 miles inland from the south china sea. it is a desolate hilltop collection of guns and bunkers looking north across the dmz into north vietnam. its crucial importance lies in

the fact it's on a main infiltration route into the south. the loss of con thien could help open the way for the estimated 35,000 communist troops now massed in the dmz area. its loss would block the construction of that electronic barrier along the dmz. to seal off south vietnam from the north. but more than that its loss would give the north vietnamese that one big elusive propaganda victory they've been searching for at such a cost in lives. they would prize a victory of con thien as a victory, a miniature replica of their victory over the french in 1954. it is vulnerable. it is the least defensible because it is so close to north vietnamese territory. the enemy artillery, 100 big guns, plus mortars and rockets can pound con thien around the clock with devastating effects. and our ground troops cannot go into north vietnam to knock out those guns. for the marines at con thien, this is what it's like.

>> you'll hear them whistle over your head. >> they went off.

>> medevac, asap. >> all right. >> put your arm around him. >> want me to give you a hand? >> keep your head down.

>> take it easy, red. >> you want to call and tell

them to get a medevac on the way?

>> 680100. 680100. >> 680100. >> 81 should be able to see that as well. let's get them on there. over. >> okay. look. here are the two tanks. you see them? the small planet about 300 meters right where that big tree is out there. 300 to 400 meters southeast.

>> what happened to your squad? >> they was hit. most of them was hit by shrap l shrapnel. >> tell me. you came here full strength. >> i had 13 men when i came. >> and it's four days later and how many are still here? >> six. >> i think we're just occupying ground. and losing too many men. i'm losing too many men. we stay here too much longer, we wouldn't have much left of this platoon, let alone the company. i see about three, four people get it a day. not real bad, but enough to be medevacked. cut my platoon down.

>> isn't that all part of war as the generals say? >> sure it is, but for seven months up here, one battalion ain't going to have much left if that's part of war. ought to rotate more i think. send us back where we can get new men and train people. they're coming out green and don't know how to act. >> rifle's been jamming. mud has slowed everything down. artillery comes in everywhere. and just gets pretty futile and frustrating sometimes. >> really depressing part about it is there isn't really much you can do. you know what i mean? you see the rounds come in, you see your buddies get blown away and wounded. stuff like that. >> i can't say i'm scared stiff, i mean, i'm scared. i mean, after a while, you know it's going to come. you can't do nothing about it

and you just look to god. that's about the only thing you can do. >> have you gotten word from up around con thien about how the war is going? >> yeah, if we don't get more people up in this area real quick, we don't get more b-52s real fast, then these people will be all the way down before anybody knows it. >> everyone agree? >> 100%. >> what kind of support are the marines getting? westmoreland says the americans are responding with the greats concentration of conventional fire power in history. the u.s. artillery fire is ten times greater than the enemies. it comes from the outpost corners of what is called leather neck square. from these big guns at camp carol. the batteries fire off as many as 10,000 shells daily. lobbing them over the heads of the men of con thien deep in to the demilitarized zone. and then there are the b-52 bombers striking from nearby thailand. they pound the zone day in, day out, with tons of explosives.

with this saturation, why haven't the north vietnamese positions been destroyed? marine commanders say the enemy guns, most of them highly mobile, are out of deep caves and tunnels, only a direct hit can silence them. and there has been no silence at con thien. the story of how con thien came to be a miniature korea began last may. the marines there were in construction battalions clearing strips to help protect against attacks. the outpost was little more than a few trenches dug on a hilltop, still green and unscorched, manned by 300 south vietnamese

civilian regulars advised by a handful of american special forces troops. a few bunkers looked like temporary homes for men there to operate the graters and earth movers. they were some protection against occasional artillery attacks. then things got rougher. on the morning of may 9th, burning tanks and personnel carriers marked a battle that began at 2:30 a.m. and lasted until after daybreak. the hilltop was strewn with dead. 200, 200 of them like this one. north vietnamese regulars. the enemy had struck with a force of 1,200 men. captured enemy weapons would gather from all over the perimeter. the cost to the americans in that first battle at con thien included 124 wounded. of those, 110 were marines. the rest, special forces men. and there were our own dead, 44 americans all together, all of them marines. the first to fall at con thien.

for the next few months, there was less action than preparation for action. the marines had come to stay, to take control of con thien from the south vietnamese. the plan was to establish a post on the hill stop that could be more easily defended. that meant more bunkers and well protected gun emplacements. the expectation was for another ground assault. enemy artillery was fairly inactive until july when it got busier. the americans retaliated with air strikes. for the rest of july and august, the marines at con thien used their own guns to good effect. the ammunition, an endless supply, came in daily. and it was used up daily. this was the end of a supply lifeline that arrived at con thien six miles to the south. there were tents near by to house a complement that included about 1,000 men. no matter how you look at it, those were better days.

there was more time for things like the casual cleaning of weapons. but nothing at con thien has been casual since september came. the first 25 days of this month, con thien had to fight back against ground assaults and a sudden calculated escalation of enemy artillery, the most intense artillery barrage of the war. at times, the shouts of incoming could be heard above the noise of our own guns. there has been a slight letup in the last few days, but marines still must patrol the perimeter of con thien and for these men, the danger is multiplied by the threat of ambush. the kind of war that's going on around con thien inspired one young marine to put his feelings into a poem. >> one youthful soldier and i fought across the sea, we were young and cold hearts, a bloody savagery. born of indignation, children of our time, we were orphans of

creation, dying in our prime. >> what made you write that poem? >> just the way things are. >> the commanders in vietnam, the men who must decide when ordeals must be born, look at the ordeal at con thien from a different vantage point. we talked with general william westmoreland, commander of american ground forces, and lieutenant general robert curb kushman who commands the marines there. >> there have been some questions from outside and inside your own command structural the way down to some privates i met on con thien about the defense of that outpost. and some who perhaps aren't as confident as the general may be. >> well, when you sit in a place such as thougat, night comes on you really have to rely upon yourself and upon supporting fires and naturally the confidence may not be as great as it is back here where i can see the many forces that can be brought to bear. and which those right on the spot may not be aware.

i am confident that we can hold this area and we have been doing it. furthermore, from what reports we've had from prisoners and documents, we've been hurting the enemy badly. >> they have attempted to make it appear that they are winning a military victory. their target is american public opinion. they had hoped that by inflicting these casualties, it being fully understood by them that the casualties inflicted upon their ranks were unknown to us, that they would achieve their psychological victory. and this is the only way they can conceivably win this war. >> con thien then you're saying is not really a military action but a political or psychological warfare action? >> precisely. objective is political and psychological. it i