-- the vietnam war veterans reflect on their experiences. joseph galloway, a former war correspondent moderates. he was there and called the ia drang the worst and bloodiest of the entire vietnam war. this conversation was part of a three-day conference at the lbj presidential library in austin, texas. they called it the vietnam war summit, it is 55 minutes. gentlemen, please welcome mr. jim knotts, ceo of the vietnam memorial fund. [applause] after the gulf of tonkin resolution was passed in 1955 saw dramatic increase in ground troops in vietnam. the battle of the ia drang valley was the first major battle between the u.s. army and the people's army of north

vietnam. the two-part battle took place 1965.ovember 14 to 18, it was thanksgiving day at home when americans first read about the battle, which was a turning week of sorts, with single casualty numbers exceeding those of the worst week of the korean war. americans had to face the facts that we really were engaged in a war. today, we have veterans of the battle of the ia drang valley it wastalking about what like on the front lines. mr. vince cantu was drafted in 1963 and became a u.s. army private in the first battalion of the seventh cavalry. his battalion was charged with a new type of air warfare that they called air mobile. colonel bruce crandall is a helicopters,or and

and has led more than 900, insions during two tours vietnam. he was drafted into the army in 1953, and in early 1965, he joined the dominican republican -- republic as a liaison for the air corps and later commanded division battalion in vietnam. he has received many awards, including the bronze star medal, the flying cross, and the medal of honor. tone johnson junior went to vietnam in 1963 as part of a cavalry regiments. 1965, his unit was ambushed by the vietcong in the all but valley and was destroyed. he received a bronze star for his meritorious achievements and

his bravery during the campaign. later, recovering in the hospital, he was inspired by the care he received to pursue a career in medicine. he later became a family practitioner and started a combat medical training program for soldiers to learn first aid. it listed inarm the army in 1964 and left as a second lieutenant. the firstigned to cavalry division, and by 1965 was in vietnam. in november 1965, his tie and came under fire in the ia drang valley. received a medal for his bravery in the campaign. waiver that going back into harms way again was his own choice. and finally, your moderator for -- mr. joe mr. good

galloway. he is a war correspondent and the recipient of numerous journalism awards. but he is also the recipient of the bronze star for valor. the only civilian to receive the honor and the vietnam war. and as the recipient of the doherty award, the highest award the army infantry can present to an individual. he is been -- he has authored several books "we were soldiers, once in young." -- "we are shoulders soldiers, too." ladies and gentlemen, your panel for the afternoon. [applause]

>> is awful quiet out there. don't know about this being much of a panel discussion, but it certainly is a great gathering of my brother soldiers. [applause] >> it has been 50 years and five on as since we met battlefield in the central highlands of the vietnam on the 14th of november, 1965. it was the first major battle for american infantry to run

head-on into north vietnamese very lightwo infantry. and they went at it north -- tooth and nail. the north vietnamese were there to kill us all. ell determinedmn w they would not. it is interesting. on the battlefield on the second day, i was shooting some pictures. and i was behind a little bush on one knee, and a fellow jumped out of a mortar pit and zigzagged across the edge of the clearing. he dove under the bush and all i eyeballs were two about the size of saucers under the rim of the helmet. he said, joe galloway? this is vince cantu, don't you

know me? [laughter] i graduated in the class of 1959 in high school, 59 of us. and the next time i saw him within the middle of the worst the bloodiest battle, of the entire vietnam war. he sure looked good. joe, if i live through this, i am going home by christmas. vince, go by and see my mom and dad, but do not tell them where we met. i came to be on the battlefield frome engraved invitation the battalion commander.

i had marched with his battalion three days before the battle began. toong, hot walk in the sun the east of a special forces camp. i spent the night with him, coldest night i ever spend anywhere in vietnam. in the central highlands at 4000 feet, we were all soaking wet from fording a river. i was trying desperately to get into this battle. there were five other reporters nemesis,cluding my also trying to get in. but i have the edge on him because i recognized colonel matt.s -- i said i need to get in there. he said we are going in with two

helicopters full of ammo, but i cannot take you unless the colonel said so. i said, get him on the horn. he got him on the radio, made , youeport to the colonel could hear the battle raging in the background. he said by the way, i have that reporter galloway who wants to come in with me. and i am listening real close in the colonel said, if he is crazy enough to want to come in here and you have room, bring him. he believed that the american people had a right to know what were doing, and what the army was doing with it there -- their sons. and that was how he conducted his operations, the press was always welcome. all i had to do then was hide from the other guys until he got

near dark and they all flew back to get a hot meal and a cold bunk. into the pagese of history, so here we are. bruce crandall, tell your story. mr. crandall: i made the mistake of taking them back out of there. [laughter] he took me in. mr. crandall: that was the first experience we had had with the helicopters. had a lot of experience with helicopters. we were just learning our role. i don't know why we had to wait until dark, i prefer to see who is shooting at me. [laughter] but evidently, the infantry had

some sort of disagreement with that and we went in after dark dark.- we brought in 71 people that survived. we got in ammo and water and medical supplies, and those people survives. it was a very exciting time, to say the least. up, we would get shot would switch aircraft and start flying another one. and i would call in to the base with a helicopters were and say, i am coming, i am shot up. i think we had five different aircraft during the day. but we flew the same aircraft a number of times. duct tape works. [laughter] we knew what we

were doing, i wanted to make it sound that we didn't have a good idea of what we were doing. we knew. but we also knew we had to do what we were doing or else the infantry would not survive on the battlefield. they were ours to make sure they survived. freeman, wased tall, in the movie he was played by sam elliott. anyway, ed was at one -- one hell of a good pilot. commanders that were in junior officers. --

engineer officers. we knew each other and trusted each other. we trusted the infantry. different types of infantry. a relationship with and they were able to take the heaviest load, i think they knew custer personally. [laughter] freeman, we saved the medal of honor first, and that was right. he was only one who volunteered to go when i asked for volunteers. he stayed with me all day and until wehe night brought them in, and that was the last flight.

mr. galloway: do you want to take over? this is one of my personal heroes. a private of the infantry, shot to ribbons on the battlefield, spending a an eye, year and an army hospital, decided that the doctors were his heroes, and the army helped him become a doctor. reservist, a a reserve officer. then he became a national guard officer. was of theur of duty surgeon general of the texas 36 national guard division. and he still practices medicine today in corpus christi. it is amazing the stories that come off a battlefield.

>> and some of it is true. if you can believe the craziest you wouldt i know, say i guess part of it is true. myself, whenstake i was 17, coming to the end of my 17th birthday. board for the the army. and i went there and the lady said to me, what is your name? said,looked at her and tone johnson. me,said no,ed at that is not your name. and i said, yes it is. she said no, that is not your name.

and then she said i will give you one more chance, what is your name? johnson.d junior and she said no, that is not your name. she said, your name is tone, and for that, i am going to send you in today. andnt outside and sat down got up and walked out and said, i'm going to go sign up myself. i signed up as a volunteer to get into the army. day thatn and on that theere asked to support gosh, i looked at it as, we going to go out with our

mortars, the infantry, and we will just support them. will lay down fire for them, that is what we are going to do. and i alwayshere, call those helicopter pilots they'recrazy because going out and ducking around treetops and then we get to a in, and he just came in really low and said boys, get your tails off the plane, off the chopper. higher than his podium here. he is flying higher than that. and he said, go ahead and jump out. get out now, because i am taking fire and need you to get out so i can take off.

out, andped nevertheless, we were in a rice patty. there is a lot of water, plus, a lot of things that we don't want to talk about. [laughter] were taking and we heavy fire, so i told the guys at the time, i think we were sent here to take the fire off the others. and everybody was saying, what are we going to do? so we headed for the wood line and started to lay down fire. when is a tough day stood there looking through the elephant grass and pulled the elephant grass back, and right before me there was a guy who looked about my age or younger.

and he was looking right at me, and i was looking right at him. and neither one of us was firing. we were just steering at each other. , a then all of a sudden large noise out of nowhere. hoursen i woke up, five later, i thought it was dead. anduld not see anything, then all i could think of, heaven certainly is dark because i can't see a thing. so i laid there for a wild, and something told me to reach up and check myself. and started feeling thinking, i am all right. i felt my face, felt like somebody take mud all over my fit -- caked mud all over my

face. and i could not open my eyes. once i got the mud off, i could see. that i am here and i am here alone. i could hear firing from the distance. i would go to try to find others and we would get together and try to develop a circle of fire. we did that, and fought throughout the evening and through the night into the next day. we were laying down as much fire as we could. night, we were there and the vietnamese were coming, and we saw them coming. one of the guys said, what are we going to do? buti said, sorry to say,

the hell if i know, i am just a private. [laughter] dr. johnson: and everybody looked around, and said, you are the rankingest private. [laughter] ok, let'sn: i said, try to find something to eat because this is the middle of the night and we have not had anything to eat since we have been at this, since about 9:00 a.m. in the morning. so we did that and we were foring down and waiting things to clear down and settle down a little bit. and we noticed that the vietnamese started coming again. and i said, nobody fights at night. this is silly. [laughter] i could see was

the tracer ammo. and we had tracer ammo, but i did not think the trace -- the had tracerviet cong ammo. i was on my back, watching this tracer ammo come across my face. said, i think somebody from our side is shooting our way. so we start hollering a little bit, and finally they say, who is there? our company. is we are here, but we have no ammo. well, you better stay down, because the viet cong is right up on you. we stay down for a little bit and then decided, well, we have to get back into fight. so we decided to move out and doing what we could. night, and we

went through that and part of the day, the next day. when i first knew joe, he came , he lived out on the day, we'red me one going to have a meeting in the town, and we are going to discuss something. so we went up there and then he told me he had written a book. i had already seen the movie. he asked me to come and look at it and everything. -- then he said gosh, it your name is in the book. said, well,it and my name is in the book.

[laughter] something for the rankingest private. dr. johnson: i looked through everything, and as joe said, i and thek to school, army was nice enough to let me join their health professional program and go to school. and i went to school and decided i would pay them back by going back into the army. i went back into the army to out, andd then i got went into public health service. and i served as a commander in the public health service for so many years, and then i got out.

and said, gosh, what am i going to do. i went into the guard. and i served in the texas guard for about 30 years. and when i got out, governor rick perry was the governor, and you're such a good fellow, we will not make you a brigadier, but we can make you an admiral in the texas state navy. [laughter] dr. johnson: what is this? i am an army officer. mr. galloway: let's move along. vince cantu, tell us your story. joe, i should not have been there in the first place. [laughter] me, too.-- at the time i was married and had a little girl so

i felt safe. but, i gathered all my papers, took them to victoria, where the recruiting station was, and i put all the information in front of them. i was sure i was not going to pass. three guys went, when guided not make it because of intelligence, and the other was too fat, so i was let in. [laughter] >> who was the one who had no intelligence? i should've said that. but anyway, they took me in. , my platoonant joe descent,was of german

the squad leader. is a big old tree behind said what you doing? i have a daughter, and i have not seen her. i said that sergeant can't function, so we sent them to the back area. montgomery said, cantu, those squad is yours. send them to pick up the dead in the chopper. said, this is and years together.

i needed 10 days left in the army. i made up my mind. the chopper followed me, but the dead body in. nicene -- then i saw joe, i did not know it was him. he was taking a picture, but i thought he was going to shoot me. [laughter] intoantu: so i dove down the elephant grass, which was really tall. i looked up and then was wondering why he did not have a rifle. in my mind i said, i know that guy. it was real hot, at the time i had a lot of freckles.

said, yes, him and that is joe galloway. he looked up, said vince cantu, remember me? big old grin. we walked toward each other, what are you doing? we are going to get you a rifle. [laughter] they took a picture of me that has been all over the place. and that has opened up my world. a group called the saints and sinners, 10 members and their wives, 40 years since i

we had a big crowd. so after the dance and the music, we went to the cafe. it was a popular cafe, it is mentioned in a lot of books and everybody goes there. so here we are, about 35 of us, we all eat after the deal. of course, i don't have that kind of money to pay for all of those guys. so i said, well, whatever we eat, we divide it into ten and go pay it. so i went to dale moya, the owner of the restaurant and i said, dale, i need the bill. she said, vince, it has already been taken care of. and i said, who? she said, they want to stay anonymous. so that is the way my life has been going. thank you.

>> i'm playing with my hearing aids. >> vince, you earned more than a free meal at moya's. [applause] >> did you hear that? because i couldn't. >> there was too many chopper days. >> joe marm, colonel marm, tell us your story. >> it is an honor for me to be here. there is in vietnam veterans out there so i can't tell any lies. >> never stopped us. [laughter] >> i would have been drafted. they had a draft back in the '60s. so i enlisted under the college option and went through basic training, advanced video training and ocs. and we can k-p and guard duty which they don't do now but it made me appreciate being a

soldier. and i graduated from ocs and went into the rangers school and that was my best preparation for vietnam. nine straight weeks of intensive training up in the mountains of north georgia and down in the everglades of florida. and we had a big formation before we graduated and they called out about 50 names of our classmates and said your order is now changed. you could make one phone call home. you are going to ft. benning. i was supposed to go to ft. jackson in south carolina and that was for basic trainees. but i went in and signed in and we were there just a month and we headed to vietnam. my first sea voyage, went over on the uss marie rose. we took a bus from ft. benning to charlestopn and boarded the rose and headed west, up the panama canal up california and through the pacific and went

through a typhoon. the only division had to get over there. soldiers and helicopters had to get over there. and the helicopters were on aircraft carriers. they took a mule. colonel stockton, they gave him a mule during the testing phase of the 11th air assault when they were testing the helicopters to see if this would work and it proved to be a very successful division and a good division but it was very expensive. they were able to outmaneuver the 82nd and the 101st during the war games they were participating in. but the colonel wasn't supposed to do it but he took his mule. they gave him -- they gave it to him as a gag gift. and he called his mule after his wife's name, maggie. [laughter] >> he got to vietnam and maggie -- the generals told stockton, i don't want maggie on my chinook

helicopter. and so he had to sling load maggie under his command helicopter to our base camp up in the central highlands. >> maggie came to a bad end. >> yeah. >> she was killed one night by a century from the 7th calvary and sergeant major plumlee reported this fact to colonel moore who held his hands over his head and said, what did you do? and he said, well, sar, i loaded maggie aboard the chow truck and they delivered her back to the ninth. and he said why did we kill her. and he said she was challenged and didn't know the countersign. >> you and i, we were on the same -- we went out on the same time. the uss marie rose. >> yes, sir.

>> rode that same mule. go ahead. sorry to interrupt. >> but we were in the seventh calvary whose lineage goes back to custer. but we had assets custer didn't have. we had the entire division ready to give us support so that was very, very -- very, very fortunate that we had that. that was my first job right out of my army training. and as a rifle platoon leader in a. company, we were the second company in. bravo company came in first and started looking for the enemy and our company, a. company, came in 10:30 on sunday morning, the 14th of november. and one of the platoons of bravo company got separated and surrounded by the enemy and the rest of the company had to pull back.

my company commander said, marm, take your platoon and link up with bravo, they are going to make an attempt to get back up to that platoon that was trapped. so we started -- we started doing it but we were taking casualties from the enemy and to our front and we were unable to do it on the first attempt. so we pulled back and we are going to make a second attempt with two companies, minus the platoon that was trapped. b. company and a. company. and so we started out and put our artillery and mortar fire in front of us, trying to soften up the front as we move forward. but everybody has their own little fire fight. in front of me was a -- it was elegant grass and shrubs and trees and not heavy jungle like you think of in vietnam. but this one solidified rock hill was 7 feet tall and it looked like a big ant hill with shrubs and trees around it in

front of my platoons' sector. and in the heat of battle i told one of my men to run up there and throw a grenade over the top and tried to use sign language and he thought i meant throw it where it is at and he threw it in front of the bunker and it went off and didn't do much damage. so we kept moving forward. and i told another one of my men to shoot a bazooka, it is a one-shot disposable tank-killing weapon, a new weapon for vietnam. and my soldier tried to shoot it but it was a misfire. so what you do with misfire, i took the weapon from him and closed it up and opened it up again and shot it and, boy, it went right into that big rock, solidified rock and made a big boom and a big cloud of dust. and it really picked up our

moral. we started moving forward again. but we were taking too much fire from the enemy. we had to stop. and it was about 30 meters away and i said rather than waste any more time because it was starting to get dark and we wanted to get to the platoon before it got too dark so i told my men to hold fire and not to shoot me up. that worried me a little bit. so i ran forward about 30 meters and got to the solidified rock ant hill and threw a graenenade over the top and it went around through the left side and silenced more north vietnamese that were still trying to shoot me. when the bunker was silenced is when i turned to -- i turned to my men to tell them, let's go, we have to get to the platoon and i got shot somewhere from one of the north vietnamese further in the background there. and it kind of ruined my day. the bullet shattered my left jaw. it went in the left jaw and deflected down and came out under my right jaw. and i didn't have -- you are

supposed to have a -- a medic with you. but it -- it is a sign attached to you. one of my sergeant leaders, a squad in the korean war and was an infantry guy now and doing double duty, carrying the aid bag and taking care of his squad. and so he came up to me and patched me up in a couple -- and a couple of my soldiers carried me back to the rear. and so i was a walking wounded. they didn't have to -- they had to help me back a little bit. but -- but this guy took me out later that night. before last light. >> he still owes me a pig. >> i have a hog farm in north carolina. [laughter] >> he bled all over my helicopter. >> we had tremendous soldiers. and they had been training together, and some of them had ten days left and many of them have a week left or -- or two or three months left and we're in that battle fighting right alongside of us.

and we are a cross section of america in terms of all races and religions. and i had e-5 with buck sergeants with ten years of service that were working with me. and so i just had a tremendous platoon of about 35 guys. in our company we lost 11 in those three days of battle. 11 killed in action. and we went in with 450, the whole battalion went in with 450 and we had 79 soldiers killed in action after three days of in tense fighting and 121 wounded in action. but we were blessed with just good soldiers and ncos. >> it should be noted here that the overall picture was that the -- until this point, until this battle, the war had pretty much bin confined to american

advisers with vietnamese troops an the casualties had been accordingly fairly small. a couple a week, something like that. although all casualties are painful. at this point, with this battle and the succeeding battle at landing zone albany, 205 americans were killed in four days and approximately 300 wounded out of two battalions. the entire campaign from mid-october to mid-november, 305 american dead. when these figures hit washington, there was a considerable concern in the white house, considerable concern by president johnson.

secretary of defense mcnamara was robert strange mcnamara, aptly named and president johnson said get your butt to vietnam and find out what the hell is going on over there. more or less in those words. and mcnamara came over and took briefings at the embassy and picked up west moreland and they flew up to the area and took briefings from colonel moore and brigadier -- major general harry kenard who was the division commander. and on the plane home, dated 30, november, 1965, mcnamara wrote a top secret eyes-only memorandum to the president.

and on 15 december 1965 president johnson called a meeting of his wise men at the white house. they had a two-day session. when johnson walked into the cabinet room for the beginning of this meeting, he had a copy of mcnamara's memo in his hand and he shook it at him, and said, bob, you mean to tell me that no matter what i do in vietnam, i can't win that war? and mcnamara looked at him and shook his head yes. the memo said, roughly speaking, that the north vietnamese had not only met our escalation of the war, they have exceeded it. and we are at a decision point.

we can decide to find whatever diplomatic cover is available and get out of this war, out of this place. or we give general westmoreland the 200,000 more troops he's asking for, in which case, by early 1967, we will reach a military stalemate at a much higher level of violence and approximately a thousand a month americans dead. he was wrong for bean counter. it was actually turning out to be 3000 a month at its height. but knowing this, and having the memo and they sat there and talked about it for two days, they then voted unanimously for option two, give westmoreland the 200,000 more troops and go

for a military stalemate at a much higher level of violence. it is one of the more curious moments in american history. at that time, we had 1100 americans who had lost their lives in vietnam. and the war would drag on for the better part of ten more years and 58,290 names would be engraved on the black granite wall in washington, d.c. so i wanted you to see that larger picture. and there is one more part of it. it seems to me, and others who have studied it, that this battle in the aftermath, general kenard wanted permission to pursue the fleeing north vietnamese enemy across this line on a map into cambodia where they had their sanctuaries

and where we knew they were and where we could see their arms dumps and their men. and this was kicked all the way back to washington, to the pentagon and then to the white house. and the answer came back, you dare not pursue those people into cambodia, period. it will not be allowed. at that moment, i believe we telegraphed a message to general jop and the bosses in hanoi that they now had and would have for the rest of the war strategy -- strategic initiatives. they would decide when and where we would fight and how long the battle would last and all they had to do at the end of it was

cross a line and they were -- time-out, we're going to have time to rest, refit, reinforce, and we'll come back when we're ready to fight you again. so it's in many ways very depressing to look at the blood that was lost -- the sacrifices that were made and see that it was all going nowhere. we were not going to win. i don't even think we could define what victory would look like in vietnam. so, that is my opinion. it is my story and i'm sticking with it. you guys are welcome to check in. >> as we expanded from 100,000 to 500,000, i went back in '69 and i didn't have the seasoned ncos like in '65 because the army had expanded so rapidly and

so fast. and which was a shame. we had great -- we had great soldiers and many of them were promoted right out of basic training and had a -- an nco course and they would come out -- they were called, many of the vietnam vets were called shake and bake. >> they were 90-day wonders. >> they were great soldiers but just not a lot of experience. >> a lot of experience. >> joe got drafted and so did i. and is he thept me 12 mile -- they sent me 12 miles from home after they drafted me and expected me to behave. which was expectations they didn't have back home. [laughter] >> anyhow, my first sergeant called me and my buddy in and he said you two guys are too f-ed up to be in the army and you might make corporal and i don't want that on my conscious, but you could make good lieutenants, so now sign this document. sign this document and get the hell out of my unit. [laughter] >> and that gave me a career in

the army. i screw up and move up. >> he made colonel. >> colonel. >> yeah. >> i generally made colonel. >> well, i remember joe was talking about in relationship to cambodia because one day we were sent out to do a firing mission and they said, well you have a firing mission and the mission is the vietnamese or -- they are coming across the border and your firing mission is to go out and fire at them and make sure. so we go out and we're sitting there waiting and we see the vietnamese sitting on the other side in cambodia. we could see them. and they -- and we were sitting up our mortars and getting ready and putting down base plates and we would notice that the vietnamese, all they were doing was putting the mortar base on a

-- the mortar tube on a rock. and they were firing with the mortar tube on a rock. and we were sitting there firing with -- going to fire ours. and someone said, you can't fire across the border. and we were waiting and wanted to fire, and the vietnamese was just firing at us. and then we looked -- we looked back in the rear and we noticed that, well, there was -- b-52 bombers were unloading. if you have ever been in a place where you could hear them they were unloading. you hear a rumbling when they are coming across right at you. and you could hear that rumbling. we didn't know what to do with it, we're going to go across the border and be with the vietcong. it got us caught. but it was something else to watch. i remember having -- telling the guys one night when we were -- we were laying on our backside there wondering what we were

going to do next. and so -- and i always carried a lot of grenades with me. and i said, well, guys, only one thing we can do. i said here is one grenade, pull the pin and we will a just lay down on the ground because we didn't have any more ammo or anything else and i said we'll just lay down on the ground and then when they come up and they reach and get you, you just hand them the grenade. so we did that. and the next -- at noon -- i said afternoon or the next day we heard the choppers, and we said gosh, you know, ok, the choppers are coming. you know. and they were coming under fire. but they still were coming in. and we said, well, guys, we are just lying there. everybody -- i said take off your grenades and then throw it out in the woods.

and we started to do that, and i had mine in my hand, and my hand was so tight -- i tell my wife sometimes that's why i can't move my hand very much now, because i had that grenade so tight. i was holding it and i couldn't open my hand. and i was what's i going to do. the first sergeant was the one to come up. sergeant major bows. we had 35 guys. and only five of us survived that day. and so we were there waiting. when i heard his name, and when he called. and i said johnson, and he said -- he started coming across. when he started coming across, i looked and i saw some little helmets. and i know the only people who were tall enough to stand in the elephant grass with helmets in their grass were vietnamese or vietcong and i thought oh, my god we are being overran. i held up my grenade to throw. and sergeant major said oh, no,

no, no, no. because i was getting ready to throw the grenade, and i went like that, and it wouldn't come out of my hand. it just stuck in my hand. so he had to come over and take it out. at that time he said, well, we're going to take you back. you've been wounded. and to my surprise, i said, well, i know i've been wounded once. he says, yeah, you know, you've got a fragmentation wound under your eye, it went right through your face. and i said really? >> we did get that platoon the next day. a young e 5, ernie savage, took over and put a ring of steel all around that platoon that night. his whole chain of command was killed or wounded and he survived with the help of the medic. they survived and we were able to get up to them the next day and get them out of there. >> one thing that i wanted to get across to this audience is

we never should have a draft again. the draft did nothing except change the place where some of our guys went to jail. the local chair for the judge could tell a young man you either go in the army or go to jail and we had the largest stockades we've ever had. and you don't gain anything by having a draft. you don't get equity. and when you talk about it -- we've got some of the finest young men in your military today, and they are doing a great job when they are allowed to do it. but a draft is a terrible way to try to solve a problem that can't be solved in any manner, shape, or form like that. i was drafted -- i didn't have to go. but if i had to go again, i'll do it. and most of your regular army types were good men. >> yeah. >> very good.

>> were very good. >> yeah. >> and those i served with in the guard when we went to the first gulf war, they were the very good bunch. they did very well. >> i think we have run to the end of our string here, gentlemen. >> i got my point in. >> you got your point across. so thank you all for your attention. >> yes, thank you. [applause] >> thank you. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] announcer: on american history we willay morning, simulcast washington journal.

at 10:00, the 1976 republican national convention between gerald ford and ronald reagan. ford's acceptance speech. >> i believe the republican party has a platform that is a dinner of bold unmistakable colors with no pastels announcer:. will visit the women's equality national monument and see the work of nina alexander. a useful,ates intelligent woman. her skirt is above her ankles which was different at that time. see the changing face of fashion. her answer on her hips and she

throws her hat into the ring of politics. she contributed over 150 cartoons in support of the suffrage campaign. , on lectures in history -- he developed this notion, there were 9 million african-americans. than 20,000 less with a college degree. onouncer: a lecture w.e.b. dubois. with the approach of the national air and space museum, we will showcase a series of nasa films. 1966 report, the

food for space travelers. -- algae, of allergy, have awhere you will microcosm of small farms and space to produce your own food. you might regenerate oxygen. announcer: for the complete weekend schedule, go to c-span.org. we are going public. we will be watched by our friends and people across the thatry and i would hope the senate may change not as an institution but be a more efficient body because of

televised proceedings. the proceedings of the senate are being broadcast to the nation on television for the first time. not that we have operated in secret until now. millions of americans have sat in the galleries and observed senate debates. today, they can witness the proceedings in their own homes. >> the senate floor has been a stage. the senators have been acting on that stage. the audience in the gallery. by our action today, we have not altered that situation, we have enlarged the galleries. we have included all of the american people who wish to watch. announcer: commemorating 30 years of senate coverage on c-span2.

announcer: a panel of historians talk about efforts to include ,he history of reconstruction describing work by the national recentlyice and published books as a larger effort to start a national conversation on the events of the reconstruction era. the university of south carolina and historic columbia posted this event. >> this afternoon, our panel is about interpreting reconstruction, challenges and opportunities. just to briefly say who the panelists are, michael allen will be the first speaker. he is a community partnership specialist with the national park service. downs is an