time when you visit our website. you are watching american history tv all weekend every weekend on c-span3. ♪ c-span's washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up sunday morning, we will discuss the upcoming vote on the final republican tax reform bill. also, rand corporation's set jones on threats to the u.s. homeland over the holiday season. c-span's washington journal live at 7 a.m. eastern sunday morning. >> charles newhall reflects on his vietnam war service and the post-traumatic stress he experienced after returning home.

he became a successful entrepreneur and venture capitalist after the war. he is the author of "fearful odds: a memoir of vietnam and its aftermath" his remarks at the society of the cincinnati in washington dc are about five minutes. thank you for coming out on this almost went to reignite. i am emily parsons. i am delighted to welcome you to the headquarters of the society and its american revolution institute. it promotes knowledge and information. the filling the aim of the continental army officers who founded the society in 1783. to achieve this goal, the institute supports advanced these, provides resources to teachers and students, advocates for battlefield preservation, and presents public programs

like this one. tonight program also not just on the week of veterans day, but on a poignant and diversity for our society. 50 years ago today, a young number of the virginia society named robert charles lawrence ferguson. died of wounds he sustained in vietnam. for the last generation, in other member of the society touched by his sacrifice has honored him by anonymously sponsoring a growing collection of rare materials on the art and science of war. the mostow one of important collections of its kind in the world for the study of the revolutionary work. our current x -- current exhibition studies the art of war in the revolutionary era. the american revolutionary war, we need to understand the vast treasures

the experience of battle imposes. most painfully, on the men who except the burdens of command. aese pressures have been reality for american soldiers for more than 200 years. them inwho experience modern times have much to teach us about the nature of battle. it was for this reason we are pleased to welcome charles newhall to address us tonight. he is a member of the maryland society of the cincinnati in which he represents joseph croft. mr. newhall has given us a vivid and harrowing account of experiences in the vietnam war in his book "fearful odds: a memoir of vietnam and its aftermath" rarely has a soldier written as candidly about the experience of battles. consequences that have rippled and echoed through this life for more than 50 years.

we can imagine all of our wars .ave left deep scars most of our history we had no effective way to discuss those scars. that we must hope is changing. newhall'st of charles service in vietnam, he earned a silver star and two bronze stars -- playing a major role in formulating investment strategy. it was instrumental in financing dramatic changes in health care and pharmaceutical biotechnology industries. he was honored with a lifetime achievement award. it has been given to only 20 people in its history. mr. newhall is chairman of -- mr. newhalle has served on the boards.

he received an mba from harvard business school. which we will hear about tonight is his first book. please join me in welcoming charles newhall. [applause] mr. newhall: welcome and thank you for coming. it is a great honor to be here. both my boys are members of the society of cincinnati and we believe in its mission to uphold the values of our revolutionary war heroes. i would like the veterans to stand now. anybody who served? [applause]

anyway, thank you all for your service. "fearful odds" is a tough book. it describes my two wars, vietnam and the other forty-year war i have had against posttraumatic stress disorder which is still going on. this is not a sad book. it shows how to win a war against ptsd or for that matter any other trauma which can lead to life-threatening depression. it took 14 years to write. i got a letter about two or three years ago. it said thank you for your book, it saved my life. i was going to commit suicide. that letter did not come from a veteran. it came from a man who had had a very bad life and had just

gotten a divorce from his wife. the point of that story is this applies to any trauma -- it could be someone at las vegas, it could be a natural disaster like a hurricane or a typhoon, it could be a messy divorce. trauma iten you get a can lead to life-threatening depression. so let me go back to the beginning. for me, the beginning was a school ined shattuck minnesota. my great-grandfather was a noted civil war hero. he became a military commandant. in minnesota. my grandfather was headmaster,

teacher, and student. we had a hundred year involvement with that school. i came from a military family. we had been fighting since 1630. king phillips rebellion. probably between our family and related families, either by marriage or cousins, or uncles, we have lost three to 500 newhall family members over our time in the military. my grandmother thought she would bubble wrap my father. that he would be incapable of dealing with life after she died. she did not want to have that happen to me. by the way, she was right about my father. shattuck whene to i was eight years old. i was taught by my

great-grandfather how to be a warrior. vietnam, sheor took me aside and said come back with your honor or don't come back. she was paraphrasing the spartan said come back with your shield or upon it. beingents were too busy venture capitalists to really look after me, so i look upon the u.s. army as my parent. after shattuck i went to the university of pennsylvania. i was simultaneously in the rotc program and in the second sets -- second special forces reserve. wenttle before i was 18, i to jump school. i lied about page. i was time i was 20, jungle warfare qualified, light

weapons qualified and years of special training. of course, catch-22, where does the army sent me question mark to fort polk louisiana to train instant warriors. you win in as a young man and six months later he went out as a warrior. i don't think you can teach warriors in six months. volunteered at fort polk five times to go to vietnam. each time i was unceremoniously told no. but my father had been a whiz kid during world war ii. he was charged up the development, production, and allocation of fighter aircraft. he knew all the generals. friend whose

roommate was general bersani. one week later, i was in the 100 and first on my way to a place that would because hamburger hill. was the most significant experience of my life. i saw horrific things. i did horrific things. i survived. thought it back, i was business as usual. i thought i was normal, but i was not. ptsd was hidden under my skin. when i went to a restaurant, i would put my back against the wall in what is called the wild bill hickok chair. sat inill hickok always that chair until one time he didn't and he sat in the center of the room and someone came up and shot him in the back of the head. if you are sitting against the wall, no one can shoot you in the back of the head.

i have heightened vigilance. whenever i left the door of my house, i was looking for snipers . when a car backfired i jumped three feet. yes, there were nightmares. they were particularly hard on my wife. i would sometimes end up hitting her. it was no big deal. i'm an airborne warrior and i fear nothing. let phrase robin williams. good morning, vietnam. let me tell you about my first two weeks in the field. our job at the first of the three 27th was to close off a place called the ashok bally. it was the highway that made the tet offensive possible. they took tanks down it, they took trucks down it. they probably took 800,000 people.

under told trees that had been pulled over so that trucks could not be seen. artillery andwith 50 caliber machine guns. off toto close it prevent another tet. 1968 my company was sent on a mission north. to find the enemy. our job was to be a minnow on the end of a hook. we were a small unit and we had to engage a much larger north vietnamese unit so the division could come around that north

vietnamese unit and take a lot of north vietnamese soldiers. the valley was about three miles wide. it was filled with eight feet tall elephant grass with leaves that were razor-sharp. at the side of this valley was an open clearing maybe 400 yards. that is where my company landed. my company commander immediately occupied to platoons on claire's. claire's. i told him it was a suicide mission. i knew the north vietnamese had

russian artillery. clearing,across that i heard pops. i knew what they were. i had been trained to know what they were. it were artillery rounds incoming. later, 40% of my platoon was either dead or wounded. i went to get a medic and together, we bandaged the wounded and dragged the dead to the lv. z. the rest of the company went back into the bamboo woods. i was loading a wounded man onto the helicopter. there were only three of us out there. they say a picture is worth a thousand words. so this is the helicopter and

the wounded whe man. that young man was killed and i was covered with his blood. jim dietzing is by who is a famous military artist. you can see his works at the army navy club. my company when after the guns with bayonets because we had to cross a minefield that was left by the special forces. a three mile trip at night. couldn't see anything. we thought we were going against north vietnamese that would run away when we arrived. they were just there to slow us up a little bit. but that is not correct.

behind the mountains were 5000 nva troops. the battle atd hamburger hill. they were there to kill us. and kill as they did. on august 14, after having garages,artillery and -- suffering artillery and barrages. my company was sent against a heavily fortified two-level stone bunkers.

immediately we suffered casualties. the motor rounds started to land again. a motor around landed eight inches in front of my nose. off.ver went i got behind some boulders but not quickly enough. the north vietnamese fired for effect your setting off all the mortars. my left side was covered with shrapnel. i was wounded and medevac. hospital thatsh was in cap easel -- in camp eagle. i deserted the mash because all of the company leaders have been killed. later, 390 101st

would be wounded or killed. that was my first two weeks. i had 54 more weeks to go through a bunch of similar adventures. i learned three lessons in leadership there. the first was a band of brothers. 60ad been on a board of small technology companies, some which have become very large. i try to make a band of brothers wherever i went. they give their lives for each other or the mission. learned is tong i sh phrase robin williams,

happens. life-threatening depression is only 30 seconds away. what do you do? house,ime you leave your what if the enemy comes from the front, from the back, or the side. then your response as you have rehearsed it in your mind is higher fire, aim fire. instantly.ct in business, this has saved my life many times. unfortunately this makes you a difficult person to live with. amy, my wife,well. to bevery irritating married to someone who wants to plan every minute and then is always looking for what can go wrong. taxi, weng to miss our

won't get to the airport on time. continued and to be tatian. -- continued anticipation. man by the name lovins. 64 young students were killed. the most of any in the united states. i had to say at that time, i was a stupid white or eight. i hardly knew any black people. i was greeted with a black panther the loot. i said what is going on? i was in the most exposed position in the platoon. he immediately started calling

him air support because we were out of our range. made a mistake, the napalm and bombs would have landed on my platoon instead of the offers. he was a neurosurgeon of fire support. medevaced.ed and i learned later he was supposed to have gone back to the united states two or three days before. he would not leave because to do so would put the band of brothers -- his brothers at risk. so he stayed. he was the only one who could call in the artillery. he went up that hill for two more days.

on the last day, he was shot in the head covering the retreat of the last platoon from that hill. after he had called in the air support. i put him up for the medal of honor. i saw papers that he had gotten downgraded. in the process of researching this boy, i came across the news that he had never gotten a single award. not a purple heart, or a bronze star. working with the people of edison high school, we have gotten a veterans building named after him and resubmitted the medal of honor. that was the least i could do for him, my brother. the next man who influence my graduate by the name of peter.

pants,a t-shirt, fatigue but you knew he was a captain just by looking at him. chili'she body of in a -- achilles. peter was not like that. he ran right to the front. he helped direct the maneuver elements against whoever was trying to run ambushes. menut the mission and his first.

he got everyone in that company to believe totally in him. he was a teacher. when we first moved in the field, peter had not been there more than a day or so. we moved away from it. we were ambushed and lost seven people. but peter taught us how to put claymore mines out whenever we stopped. whenever we stopped, instantly we were made to wear helmets. we would break up any ambushed because the first time you heard a crack, you would put out a claymore. he was continually teaching us the art of war. unit thatdemoralized had been beaten up and he restored our pride and taught us how to win battles. know, the most important

thing that peter told me was how to get people to do what they believe is impossible. my life has been spent thereafter getting people to do what they believe is impossible because that is what it takes to build a company from nothing. the third man was even more colorful. he was a first sergeant. pounds he weighed 290 and had a big beer belly. but he had fought in 14 wars. starting with world war ii. man.ught me how to be a the first sergeants stay at nco club and come out to deliver the mail.

but this guy went out with the troops. he could out march any 20-year-old. 21-year-old semi professional football player shirk his duties, he would pick him up by the scruff of his neck and shake him and say if i can do this, you can do it. you know what, i will be marching right behind you. if you don't do it, you will suffer the consequences. he got the football player motivated. never complain, just do it. neo desporondum. he would listen to popular operas. gner operas.

i went to harvard business school and then i started my own venture capital firm with two other guys. largest state venture capital firm in the world. tohave probably financed 900 1000 companies. we watch how they grow. they have well over $1 trillion in revenue. so just because you have post-traumatic stress disorder, it doesn't mean you can't change the world. createdanies we started 70% of the traffic on the internet. angioplasty.lloon the cloud. and so many other things.

the eyes of the world i was a successful entrepreneur. i had a wonderful wife and a host of things that i love to do. wife, died byt 13, 1982.nd on march in some ways, this book is a eulogy for her. was the 16th dissent of mary washington. bipolarfered from acute disease. in her family, there were eight suicides in the past two generations. i had no doubt that my career up ,essions, my various passions my always being worried about what could go wrong hastened her

through bipolar disease. i must live with that. i immediately started dressing in fatigues. i slept with an uzi on safety. howught my six-year-old boy to assault bunkers with live fire going over his head. i was a real nutcase. think, after her death that life was worth living. i looked at my two sons and myself and i saw skeletons. when i looked out at our beautiful property, i saw nothing but ashes. and burning tree stumps. enough to marry amy who is sitting in the back of the audience.

she helped our family recover from this devastation. longer saw the foliage as black and white, but she let me see it in color again. suicide is noat option for a warrior. learned, as i said it took 14 years to write. usually, i went to a psychiatrist by the name of ted kaiser. learned,i relied on the departf psychology at johns hopkins. aam actually still seeing psychiatrist from time to time. but what dr. kaiser did for us was to give us a playbook about how to deal with trauma. to recognize the

disease. you have to say this is not me it is a disease. the second thing is much easier to say than to do. cognitive behavior therapy. what couldng about go wrong and force your mind to think about good things. as a child, i had a rough childhood. as a psychiatrist, he took me back there because i had learned behavior that was very counterproductive as an adult. we worked to change that. for me, my work was a defense mechanism. i was change the world passionate about it.

but i also had coping mechanisms ande garden, collecting, pug dogs. if you have a pug dog you cannot be depressed. this is the first book in a series of four. outlines thek coping mechanism. the next book which will be years infamily's 76 the exciting business of venture capital and changing the way the world is. third book will be things thatting pertain to the history of your family. so, the publishers rejected my

book. areamily were saying you disclosing too much. i was doing enough for myself but to help people. people,d had about 30 many of them who are famous authors are veterans and they said you must write this book. you must tell your story. i wrote this book for victims of posttraumatic stress disorder. battered women, people in las vegas. anything that tries to destroy your life i recommend that you go to our website and look because there is lots of information, much more than is in the book.

when i was writing this book, i would hear my grandmother's voice. you must write when you have learned. it is the only honorable thing to do. hope i have created something of value for you, people you know, or families dealing with trauma. or at some talks, i asked people if they have heard of people having trauma. sometimes, 70% of the room will stand. a tough book but read it to the end. -- inwe are in the miss the midst of a post-traumatic stress disorder society. -- that is

california for you. you don't count the car accidents where people drive into trees or buildings that people fall off of or god knows how many other things people into their life with. it is a crisis. andk you to read the book to guide people who have suffered from trauma. i would like to ask the people in this audience how many people -- how many of you have suffered trauma, know of someone who has suffered trauma, or have heard of someone who suffered trauma in your life, raise your hands please. just about 40%. again, i would like to thank you for coming to be in this and the society

of cincinnati is the perfect venue especially when i hear that another 101st lieutenant died and left a library here. so, i am open for questions, anyone who wants to ask, raise your hands. [applause] >> this weekend on american history tv on c-span3. today at 6 p.m. eastern on the civil war, generals we love to hate. general joseph johnston. argue thats critics his competitiveness with the federal government so undermined the war effort as to make him a contributing factor in confederate defeat. to these critics, johnston was

the real mcclelland of the west. [laughter] the moralho lacked will unless he could be certain of victory. since those circumstances never obtained, he seldom sought battle at all. two days after his return from new york, the president's oldest daughter linda bird johnson became the bride of captain charles robb of the marine corps. historically, it was the first white house wedding in 53 years. >> then at 6:00 on american artifacts, the 200 year history of the willard hotel, whose georgeinclude washington.

>> he stayed for 10 days. the first white house wedding was not at the white house, it was at the willard hotel. american history tv all weekend, every weekend, only on c-span3. ♪ c-span's washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up send it -- coming up sunday morning we will discuss the republican tax reform bill. also, rand corporation set jones. journal liveington beginning at 7:00 a.m. eastern sunday morning. join the discussion. >> sunday night on afterward.

book coughlin on his "bannon always the rebel." >> you spent a lot of time with steve bannon. you have heard his goals and talked about what he wants to do. what odds do you give him for being able to reach those goals? >> do you want me to be honest or hopeful? think there is a decent chance because i think bannon believes the electorate has always -- has already changed. from was victorious despite obvious flaws -- trump, not a perfect person.

despite that they elected him. what bannon believes is that already the longing for populism and nationalism is there. he believes it is always -- it is already victorious among the base. it has not changed in washington. it has not changed in the leadership of the republican party. watch afterwards, sunday night at 9:00 p.m. eastern. >> saratoga springs was settled in 1789. the history of the area goes back much further than this. join us as we talk to james per erasbout the different that shape the city. springshe saratoga history museum is one of the oldest. we were founded in 1883 as the