from a president george bush reflects on the life of former first lady, barbara bush. >> she had this motto, that you are going to be judged about the success of your life by your relationships, with your family, your friends, your coworkers and the people you meet along the way. announcer: watch on american history tv this weekend on c-span three. >> well in pittsburgh pennsylvania, we visit the university of its perks archive to learn about democratic congressman, john martha. ♪ >> representing the 12th district of pennsylvania, presentsan john murtha

"capitol commentary." and now, here is congressman murtha. >> i am glad you could join us for another of our reports from washington. >> we are at the archive center at the university in pittsburgh. . the center collects materials that document the postindustrial iceberg. today, we talk about congressman john patrick murtha, better known as jack murtha. he was a congressman that served almost four decades in washington, representing the people of western pennsylvania, particularly the people sort of in the areas to the east and south of the surrounding pittsburgh area. what i would like to share with you is a bit about congressman murtha's career as a military man, about his influence with military spending and also his letters in the national park

service here in western pennsylvania. >> jack was actually not born here in western pennsylvania, but along the ohio river in west virginia in the 1930's. but but that his parents were originally from western pa. he finds himself coming back here as an early child. his family tradition was that they were irish catholic families, his great grandfather immigrated to this country and worked in the coal mines around places like scottsdale and mount pleasant. it is very important to note, coal mining was very important here because we are the home of the deal industry and coal -- we are the home of the steel industry and call is what about in the steelmaking process, so it was very important. ancestorsa?

were a big part of that trajectory of the steel industry here in pittsburgh. public service was a huge thing for the murthas and the ray families, and greatly influenced congressman murtha, particularly military service. so he volunteered for the marine corps in 1952. very quickly, he became a drill instructor down in paris island. then he later became an officer's candidate at quantico. his active finished service in the marine corps, but continues for many, many years to be a reserve in the marine corps. to be inhe continues the reserves until 1990, where colonel.s as a corne . he actually volunteered for

service again in 1956. he was in vietnam. they had tours for one year. when they were deployed. did asmajor objective he military intelligence was sort of, mapping out where guerrilla warfare and i talks on the american forces were happening, with a new sort of way of analyzing data. he was able to determine where the enemy was located and they reduced the attacks greatly eriod, iss time p significant time for the military during his time period there. jack murtha was elected to congress in 1974 in a special election. new congressmen are assigned to committee work, so one of the things he was assigned to fairly quickly, was the house subcommittee on defense appropriations. this was critical because what is happening, he was building on his military experience. i would also like to note, though, in his election of 1974,

he was the first member of the house to have served in vietnam. becomes a mentor for jack murtha and tip o'neill is jack murthaou know, needs to be on these fact-finding trips around the world wherever there are appropriations for military movements. for instance, one of the very first ones in 1978, he finds himself back in vietnam, back in southeast asia, and he is meeting with various political figures as well as with military figures, and one of the things he does is he records on tape in a diary, his actions throughout the day. one of the things we have here in the collection are these wonderful transcripts of his tapes, also with his notations on them. one of the things it says here, the state department was stating that there were two or 3000 russians in vietnam today.

they give approximately $500 million per year in aid. they were also talking about the claims of the vietnamese not being friendly to the russians and especially, being more friendly to the chinese. so basically a fact-finding trip, is what is going on here. trying to figure out who are the players on the ground in vietnam, still? wasicularly later on, he also trying to go to beirut and egypt on a fact-finding mission in the 1980's. this particular trip, one of the things produced is this wonderful album of photographs. he visits a palace of resident , but also, onet of the things that is very critical in this is a clipping which basically says, "jack murtha's trip will influence the direction of the appropriation's up committee

talks." one of the things that congressman murtha sort of distinguished himself by the early part of the 21st century was his expertise in military intelligence, military service, and the service on the appropriations committee. so he becomes a very strong voice for any military action happening by the united states. 9/11 happens, so we go to war. , againstrly, with tourism in afghanistan. but shortly after that we find ourselves getting the resolution to go to war in iraq. theressman murtha supports initial resolution to go to iraq, like many of his colleagues in congress. but within a few years, he begins to be critical of that november 2005, he a resolution to actually pull our troops out of iraq. >> the united states" mission

troops have done all they can in iraq. it is time. .or a change in direction our military is suffering. the future of our country is at risk. we cannot continue on the present force. present course. it is evident about military action in iraq is not in the best interest of the united states of america. works this is extremely controversial, particularly from his base constituents which are ofy much for a military-type -- very much pro-military type of folks. to understand sort of how controversial this was, congressman murtha received a huge amount of mail, probably about six boxes worth of letters, mostly against what he had to say. mostly against his resolution to pull out of iraq. this letter from a former

enlisted men from wisconsin says , by definition, you are a .raitor your comments are aiding and abetting the enemy. embarrassmentan to our country, the flag and freedom. another person writing from, militarylso a retired man says -- benedict arnold was a decorated soldier as well. one of the last ones i would like to highlight is coming from a citizen in florida where he says, "marines don't cut and run. marines don't quit before the job is done. marines don't leave their data on the field. you may have been a marine wants, but it seems like your soul has been sold to the enemies of the country. you are a disgrace to the marine corps." ofs is an indelible feeling that they had and

needed to express to congressman murtha. but there were also people that felt that murtha was doing the right thing. in particular, here is a very good letter from rhode island from a citizen who is saying, i want to thank you for taking a courageous and correct position to bring our troops home from iraq. you have put your country first, ahead of your own interests,, but in a cord with the wisdom and conscience of your inner being. god bless you. in 2006, congressman murtha was awarded the "profiles in courage" award from the jfk presidential library. they stated at the time of the award as a combat veteran and retired marine corps colonel with 37 years of service in the u.s. military, murtha's decision to withdraw his support from the iraq war carried particular weight. his decision speaking out against a protracted conflict shifted public sentiment about the war and generated a

substantive national debate on the progress, policies and objectives of the u.s. presence in iraq. so you can see here in this picture congressman murtha after he's awarded the profile in courage award, embracing caroline kennedy in a very emotional ceremony. congressman murtha was also very good at bringing back dollars to western pennsylvania, supporting people in the work of the federal government here in the region. one of the ways he did that was being involved in the appropriations committee for the interior department, which of course, is apparent of the national park service congressman murtha: in many ways . congressman murtha: in many ways our national parks represent what our greatest strengths are as a nation. the natural beauty of our great land, seemingly limitless potential, unspoiled by the ravages of man. for pennsylvania, our park lands also represent another source of economic diversification as tourists spend nearly $20 million a day throughout the

commonwealth. >> in particular, he was very supportive in the 1980's of the creation of the industrial national park heritage areas. this is important to western pennsylvania, because as we talked about before with his family's connection to the coal and steel industries, pittsburgh and western pennsylvania is the center of steel making. but in the 1980's it's on a huge decline. in fact, it becomes almost -- it it almost disappears. at this point in time, he is looking at ways in which we can capitalize on the steel heritage and promote it through tourism and preservation for the betterment of our country. plan, this coordinated effort by the parks department,

the local department and the commissioners in various counties and the state has changed our direction and added to the other things we have done. and as you said earlier, throughout the country, people are interested in this particular project because it is a pilot project for the rest of the country on how you can bring counties together. >> in part of the collection, there are wonderful recordings, video recordings of his show commentary,"ol that he recorded in washington and were sent back here to western pennsylvania. in some of his episodes, he interviews several of the leaders in the national park, also some of the researchers in the national park service, particularly around this industrial heritage area. people in congressman murtha's district saw that he really was working for them and bringing back programs, federal programs that were helping them.

during the 1980's and the 1990's there was a lot of unemployment here, and so he got a lot of support from his constituents for bringing these programs and creating some of the centers that were developed here and became home in johnstown and western pennsylvania. many of his fellow congressmen saw his great sort of support of programs coming into western pennsylvania as earmarks and pork-supported projects ended it did not sit as well with them, so they became very big critics of him. died in 2010.rtha he and, was having some illness and had surgery, and he died from complications from his surgery. his passing was a great blow to the people of western pennsylvania and the 12th district.

announcer: you can watch this and other programs on the history of communities across the country at the span.org/cities to war. this is american history tv, only on c-span3. next, indiana bloomington professor stephen andrews teaches a class on conspiracy theories. he describes how they had changed over time but often inclusion of groups skullhe illuminati, and and bones. he talks about have older conspiracy theorist sees included the congress party but later, the global new world order was in popular culture. this is about one hour 20 minutes. >>