he academy award nominated book "american sniper." >> the american sniper's dates from the time of the revolutionary war. since then, snipers have been employed in every war and conflict. during our civil war, general burton helped perfect the techniques the snipers use. world war i saw german soldiers use high-powered rifles with telescopic sights. during world war ii, the united states armed marksman with special rifles to conduct sniper operations. world war ii taught us that a sniper is a weapon of opportunity and a typical rifleman cannot be assigned the sniper mission. every marksman is not a sniper. every sniper is a marksman. during the korean conflict, army and marine corps commanders failed to appreciate the techniques and capabilities of snipers. as a result, a sniper school was founded by the united states army infantry school in 1955-1956 to pass on these

lessons learned. it was noted a well trained sniper is the best protection against enemy snipers. they must be experts with specialized weapons and combat skills. also thereir commanders' education in this area is vital. the sniper program was short-lived. but vietnam revised the need for snipers because of enemy forces in vietnam, illustrating the effectiveness of sniper techniques under varying tactical conditions. united states snipers in vietnam used 2.3 rounds per kill versus thousands of rounds per kill expended by conventional units. for these reasons, the army conducted sniper courses and educated commanders on all levels on sniper employment. in grenada, army snipers were successful at ranges of up to 800 meters.

during recent action "just cause" in panama, the longest confirmed kill documented was 925 meters. snipers in panama accounted for at least 10% of all casualties and were instrumental in intelligence gathering and security, especially around the papal nuncio. the role of the modern sniper team is to enhance the means of eliminating the enemy. the sniper team is unique in that it is the sole means by which a unit can engage point targets beyond the effective range of a standard service rifle. one shot, one kill. united states army snipers. >> monday night, we spoke with

executives at the consumer electronics show in las vegas. they talk about their companies and the technology on which the internet, mobile phones, and the cloud operate. >> we talk about what we call the network society. it is a society where everything they can benefit from a connection will have one. we put this forward in 2009 in barcelona in the trade show there. over 50 billion connected devices in 2020, which has caught on well in the world. that has opened many people's minds that the mobile industry is not limited to the smartphone devices we carry around personally. it also is a great technology to connect some of the other things and be able to build a better society based on those technologies. >> the internet started with this thing the people needed to get to our dollar connections

etc. we brought that internet from somewhere to your home. brought that from your home to every device you carry around. the next stage is taking it from mobile devices to things information, and connecting not just people but things with people, information with people, and processes with people and things so we can create what we call the internet of everything. i think we are at the early stages of building up the internet of everything. >> monday night at 8:00 on c-span2. >> each week, american artifacts visits museums and historic places. the united states botanic garden was first proposed by president george washington in a 1796 letter. next, a visit to the grounds of the oldest botanic garden in north america to learn about the history of this plant museum. >> my name is ari novy. i am the executive director of

the united states botanic garden. we are standing on union square, which is the end cap of the national mall on the east side just before you arrive at the united states capital. it is a fascinating piece of land because it has gone through many transformations in terms of what has been here over the course of the history of washington, d.c., since around 1800. it is important to the botanic garden because the first united states botanic garden was on this piece of land, even though today it is most notably associated with the reflecting pool and memorial to grant. what i would like to do today is present a little bit of the early history of the united states botanic garden, so a show a couple of the remaining trees that date back to the original botanic garden

location, and also talk about the process by which the botanic garden came to be. it eventually moved across the street from where it is currently, and a little about the famous fountain that originally was placed here by congress and also made its way two blocks south in the 20th century. we are open 355 days a year, 356 on leap years, free of charge. we get visitors from all over the world. we aim to delight people in the wonders of plants and put a smile on your face. and with that smile, we believe we can educate about some of the wonders and services the plant kingdom provides to human beings.

>> the political landscape has changed with the 114 congress. there are also 100 eight women in congress, including the first african american republican in the house and the first woman veteran in the senate. keep track of the members of congress using congressional chronicles on www.c-span.org. it has lots of useful information including voting results and statistics about each session of congress. new congress, best access. >> up next on american history tv, former cia chief of disguise jonna mendez recounts the story of how czech husband and wife,

kgb spies karl and hana koecher, infiltrated the cia and gathered top-secret information through the use of sex in the 1970's. mendez reports that one popular washington d.c., swingers' club frequented by the czech spy couple counted at least 10 cia staffers and a u.s. senator as members. this session from the smithsonian associates and international spy museum is about an hour and a half. >> let me address our speaker today. she is jonna mendez. someone whom i've known for a number of years. i should mention off the bat, i see jonna regularly as she serves on the board of advisors of the international spy museum. and she and her husband, tony, whom many of you know from his fame in particular from "argo." tony could not be with us today but we are delighted to have jonna.

jonna began her career overseas in germany where she was working and was recruited by cia. in 1966. at that time they brought her into -- she became a technical operations officer. tech ops, technical operations officers, often are crosstrained in a variety of things. in jonna's case, she was trained in disguise, identity transformation, and clandestine imaging. i will let her explain that if any of you are interested in that. but her really top specialties were photography and disguise. she was assigned in the mid-1980's, 1986 to what in the agency call denied area operations. they were called that because of the absolutely pervasive surveillance we had to deal with in russia, our principal

adversary, and east europe. it was so pervasive we had to develop special techniques. we became very good at communicating with our agents or secret sources even under surveillance. and tony and jonna helped facilitate that. jonna herself was made chief of disguise at the cia, running that multimillion dollar program. there were a variety of people who are tech ops folks around the world. and she then retired from the agency in 1933, receiving the intelligence -- [laughter] all right. we will take it from the top. [laughter] she shook her head, and then you all reacted. she retired in 1993 and earning the cia's intelligence commendation medal. since then