>> sunday on american history tv the 1999 interview with the late senator robert byrd prior to the impeachment of president clinton. we have a great body of evidence already before us, much of which is sworn testimony having been cross-examined, but it would be possible, in my own mind, for us to conduct a trial without having witnesses called. >> sunday at 9:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span3. > american history tv, a discussion on the continuing deadly problem of unexploded

bombs that were dropped by the u.s. military during the vietnam war. panelists include an environmentalist, a vietnam veteran, and several staff members from project for new, a vietnam-based educational and bomber moving excavation -- bomb removing excavation. this was hosted in conjunction with the vietnam traveling exhibit. >> hello. interlude, an interlude that will remind us of 50 years ago in a very different way, but i want to first make two informational points. one is, you see that poster that is over there? what that is is imagining the wall if it represented all of

vietnamese, lao, and cambodian that were killed. our numbers were the different than the ones we heard today, but in any case, the white is there, that recognition of all of the deaths is a far more massive issue. i would like to introduce mary poster, if she will stand up. you will hear her at the white house tonight. poignantlyer speak about her situation. mary is from ball state university, where they organized the only commemoration of moratorium that we are aware of in the middle of october. that is all, like everything else come online, and you will get information about how to see it. uh -- it is an honor to introduce peter.

peter and i traveled together in vietnam three times, where he was doing public concerts to raise attention, international attention to the agent orange problems and landmines in uso. and his unstoppable, ability to connect things together is unique. ask peter tong to sing two songs now. downstairsg one song and at least one, maybe more, at the white house. we will just see how things go there. yarrow, i don't have to say much more than your name, but -- [cheers and applause] peter: thank you. we are going to have a song now.

when we finished the program, we are going downstairs. we will sing again. and when we get to the white he is goingis when to really sing. thank you, peter. ♪ where have all the ? owers gone long time passing where have all the flowers gone? long time ago where have all the flowers gone? young girls have picked them

every one when will they ever learn? when will they ever learn? where have all the young girls men gone? where have all the young men gone? longtime long time passing where have all the young men gone? long time ago long where have all the young men gone? where have all the young men gone? gone for soldiers every one when will they ever learn? when will they ever learn?

♪ i was on reconciliation and development on three trips. because noah, paul, spent close and i involvedde very deeply in the antiwar movement. in fact, there was a very important statement that was how we're going to -- how we are going to let people know about what has happened, so that it moves them? can you pull the door, please? thank you. people may not move by statistics.

i mean, they are informed by statistics, but let me tell you a quick story, and then i will go back to the songs. vietnam, therip to first day that we were out there, we went to friendship thatge, where it is judged 50% of the children, at least, deformities as a legacy of agent orange. and i sang for them. when you sing for these children, and you see what the deformities are, they are not unsimilar to florida

floridamide, then you hold these children with deformities in your arms, and it is a child. they are not deformities, it is life and love. and it is devastating. was run byvillage vietnamese and american g.i.'s. and the kids were ecstatic singing. for a few minutes, there was only just the joy of singing together. indid not have to sing vietnamese or in english. to -- that evening -- to the hanoi opera house, which is three-quarterr reproduction of the paris opera house.

it was built during the occupation by the french. and i got up in front of the audience, and i came to a was timeoint when it for me to sing "blowing in the and i said to everybody, "i cannot sing this song. i cannot sing that song after what i experienced, until i tell you how i feel. i am not speaking for america. i am not speaking for other people on this stage. as a person who was at friendship village," and i told them a bit about it. and i said, "from one american to all of you, i cannot tell you how horrified i am from just what i have experienced, to see what my country has done.

, am horrified, beyond ashamed " -- and then i think. i said "ok, now i can do it," and then i think "blowing in the wind," which i will do in a second, but all of southeast asia picked up on this story. it went crazy. why? ecause somebody was saying "the emperor has no clothes." and that is why it frightens. and this is what i want to tell you, john, and you, susan. idea, for the next time that we go to vietnam, learning from that and seeing it, do you know what, when it hit the ap, do you want to know

some of the things that were said to me, about what i should do with my head when it was cut off? and that was before the era of facebook. it was extraordinary. extraordinary. two more times and i made a film that was too grotesque to prevent -- present to pbs. it was called "legacy of denial." if wes what we must alter are going to end this cycle. if we do not acknowledge the injury we have done, and we do it in one specific way, it will break through. it was not just one way. was plutonium or uranium bullets in syria. we say we did this. guess what.

-- don't forget about it. acknowledge what it will do to people who are being acknowledged. what it will do for us is give us the chance to capture our humanity, how morality once more. if we don't do it we are condemned to continue this cycle. now we will sing "blowing in the wind." everybody he was going to join us on that trip. i want everybody to raise your hands. i will not sing "blowing in the wind" until you do. you are not raising your hand. you want to hear bob dylan. [laughter] ok, here we go. ♪

the house is filled with ex-pats. they knew peter, paul and mary's music with vietnamese. said, wend the adults don't need your apology, peter. just let us live our lives in peace. the young people said, thank you. ♪ answer, my friend is blowing in the wind in thewer is blowing wind how many roads must a man walk down man?e they call him a

must the light of sail how many seas mostly white dove sleeps in thee sand themany times must before they're forever banned? the answer my friend is blowing in tehe wind the answer is blowing in the wind times must a man look he can see the sky?

one man have must cry?e he can hear people deaths will it take , let me know too many people have died is blowingmy friend in the wind theanswer is blowing in wind years can a mountain

thet before it is washed to sea? a mountain of hatred and ignorance. how many years can some people allowed toe they are be free? how many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn't -- that is what we are talking about. how many times we have to see this? we cannot test. in eight years the dioxin goes out of the body. space you havehe a 75% chance. 85% or 95%.

how many times are we going to turn away from this reality? we want to deny it. we want to deny responsibility for the horrors we have done. until we do that we cannot wash ourselves clean. this is what i want to do with john. i want to go there and do what i did on the stage in hanoi. i know you don't want to hear my words but you will have to listen for a moment. i am older than you are. go and then i will do the last course. there just as citizens, concerned citizens. we go to the various places to make an apology and we make a gesture. we say it out loud. just shut up and sing. [laughter] that is what they are going to

say. they did it to the dixie chicks and they will say to us. they will say you are an american -- unamerican. we say we are the essence of america. how many of you will consider coming? raise your hand. you don't have to come. just consider doing it. [laughter] ♪ the answer my friend is blowing in the wind blowing in the wind. last time. ♪ the answer my friend is blowing in the wind. ng in ther is blowi wind ♪ [applause]

>>we hope you are hungry for and thating by peter you will join us in the lobby afterwards. he will sing before we had to the white house. he is going to sing when we get to the white house. folks fromall up the the next panel, the last panel of the day. including myra mcpherson will moderate. while they are coming up here i want to mention that there are three or four websites you should keep in mind in the spirit of the g.i. resistance movement. thats the organization chuck joined when he came back from vietnam. went to the university of georgia in athens and met with

other soldiers, veterans who are equally distressed with the war. that is the vietnam veterans against the war. vvaw.org.ite is website is wagingpeaceinvietnam.org. out for thell veterans for peace -- veteransforpeace.org who have helped with many organizations. all was the president of the new york city chapter of the veterans for peace and has been with us at every presentation and every

university so far. vietnamfulls disclosure.org. it's a really crucial site. they have been highlighting the problems with the ken burns vietnam series. if you're looking for more information on how to talk to friends and family about what is wrong with that series on vietnam, that's a good place for information. but also i want to highlight that they now have a very interesting blog there put together by jeff patterson with first-person interviews. this is on tape with many of the folks who are here in this room now. schnallarcy, susan

and others. it's a very fine, very professional, very interesting set of blogs. with that i want to turn it over to myra. thank you. myra: we have another stellar panel. that ito say to peter was lucky to be a friend of mary travers. one day i was driving in my car and i heard "where have all the flowers gone?" i got goosebumps. got a hold of my friend and said that is the title of my book. passing"ow "long time king. thank -- cam. thank you very much. i want to introduce two wonderful men who work together with chuck.

i want to talk about chuck later years after the vietnam war was over, lai was severely byured at the age of 10 eight u.s. close tribute addition that exploded at the beach near his house -- a u.s. munition. lai and his brother were killed in a 2002 accident. he lost his right arm, part of his left hand and one eye. he is now 27 and is a member of the staff it project renew and works with the mine action visitor center to teach children which is education, how to protect themselves from the threat of explosives ordnance. it is still a tragic menace long after the war. ngueyn fu.

charge of the mine action visitor center and the education program at project renew. he works with the youth union and other vietnamese institutions. his network reaches thousands of children and adults annually and teaches them how to be safe from bombs and mines and had to report explosive ordinances to response teams. the response teams do a fantastic and brave job at detonating mines before they can explode. to do ad you two like double team and talk a little bit about your life and what you are doing?

>>good afternoon everyone. i am from vietnam. i am 30 years old. i am a survivor of a bomb accident. volunteer with project renew and i very happy happy toere and i'm speak my story. good so i needot help with mr. fu. you need it translated into vietnamese? [laughter] good afternoon.

lai: [speaking vietnamese] i feel leery -- very frightened after my tragic accident. lai: [speaking vietnamese] 2000, we were playing. going out for playing. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: as we were going out in the sand dunes not far from where i was living i recall there were a

missions.ms that were lai: [speaking vietnamese] because of our curiosity knowledgeck of proper we played there. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: i took a rock and i hit one of those items. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: it was followed by a blast right after that. lai: [speaking vietnamese] i fell after that, miky

clothes tore apart. lai: [speaking vietnamese] yes. a black into my e my cousin passed away. lai: [speaking vietnamese] i was hospitalized by the people living in my village living close by. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: in the hospital my parents cried a lot. they believed i was dying as a result of the blast. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: it took me four months in the hospital. i had nine told

operations in the hospital. lai: [speaking vietnamese] like tragics more for what i have been through mental and physically. lai: [speaking vietnamese] felt every time the doctors and nurses came to me for a medical -- lai: [speaking vietnamese] especially when i have to come for another operation. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: i was 10 years old then. lai: [speaking vietnamese] hospitallife after the was totally changed. lai: [speaking vietnamese] died. was told my cousins lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: another big loss for myself. lai: [speaking vietnamese]

the bombs totally destroyed my life. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: from what is a normal person into a person that is handicapped. lai: [speaking vietnamese] right upper leg is mutated. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: also with my right arm. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: my right eye is also destroyed. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: and my left foot was taken away. lai: [speaking vietnamese] arm has a few fingers left. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: and also damage my left eye. lai: [speaking vietnamese]

since then my life basically has to rely on wheelchair and crotches or i uches or i will be sitting in the wheelchair all day long. lai: [speaking vietnamese] --: lai: [speaking vietnamese] all of that makes my life worse and worse. lai: [speaking vietnamese] i just don't want to make any friends. my life had been closed. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: i find it challenging in daily communication in the community. lai: [speaking vietnamese] that makes my life closed. lai: [speaking vietnamese]

phu: in my night i have a lot of bad dreams about it. lai: [speaking vietnamese] recall from time to time about the big bang and the result of the accident. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: that makes me awake from time to time in the night. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: that is another nightmare for me. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: and being alone. lai: [speaking vietnamese] all of those -- coming to those challenges i try to get back to the community, to the school. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: it was challenging for me to try to get back into the school, to the community. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: it is because of my

disabilities. lai: [speaking vietnamese] arms.nd also my it is difficult for me to hold the pen for writing. lai: [speaking vietnamese] i did not see any kind of future for my life. things for my life in the future. lai: [speaking vietnamese] like toever i would appreciate the generous and kind hope in caring support of my parents, my school teachers to get me through. lai: [speaking vietnamese] to: all of that i was able participate in secondary high school and even entrance enrollment into the university. lai: [speaking vietnamese]

today i became a communicator at project renew. lai: [speaking vietnamese] i really like this type of job because it gives me an opportunity to interact and socialize with people. lai: [speaking vietnamese] what is more important is the war ended. lai: [speaking vietnamese] legacies ands consequences are still there. lai: [speaking vietnamese] learned there are many areas in vietnam which are still impacted as a result of

unexploded ordnance. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: they impose a daily threat to the lives of those in vietnam. lai: [speaking vietnamese] thousands ofult vietnamese civilians were killed or maimed in tragic accidents because of u.s. ordnance. lai: [speaking vietnamese] are my cousin and myself among the dead. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: for those who passed away and cannot see any kind of future in their life. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: and for those who are survivors and have become a burden on society, the community. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: it is a big pain.

it is a big loss. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: the war has been ended many years ago. lai: [speaking vietnamese] it is still a problem in my country, my community. lai: [speaking vietnamese] i don't like any other o. to be out there in our land. lai: [speaking vietnamese] --: nmr future casualties and no more future casualties. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: however there are some efforts that have been underway in vietnam.

some organizations have been working on that. of --ing the efforts lai: [speaking vietnamese] got one of the funding we this from the u.s. government. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: their work had been on to release the safe land. lai: [speaking vietnamese] safe to be land is released for community development. havee community people can safer, better lives. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: for me being a community --

communicator, for years i became committed to this kind of work. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: i am very willing to share my knowledge, my personalized knowledge being a person who survived to a wider audience. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: so the community can live in a safer way. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: that is my daily job. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: by working along with children on a daily basis i am helping them by showing them how a be safe and showing them way from the uso.

lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: so basically they know how to protect themselves from the danger. lai: [speaking vietnamese] so they can have a better future. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: and they don't have to go like i was in the past. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: that is what it is all about. what i would like to share with everybody here tonight. lai: [speaking vietnamese] phu: thank you very much. [applause] myra: can you tell us about your life? phu: good evening, everyone. this is my first trip to d.c.

and the u.s. every day is a new experience for me. i feel great. so far, so good. born in the same place. the dividing line between north and south of the country during the years of the war. born -- i was raised right below the line, the dmz. key major --the during the wartime. in my family, my father served s, what a lot of people call the viet cong. he was a listed a few much after the tet offensive in 1968.

he spent most of his time in prison. soon after he joined the guerrilla forces he was arrested . transported to danang for work. one of the biggest islands in southernmost vietnam. a huge prison there. father was imprisoned the family had no idea. nokia medication or contact with him. his younger brother came of age and he was enlisted into the army of the south, arvn. that is how the situation in my family. my father stayed there for basically about five years. accord. until the peace

at the prisoner exchange. then fought for a few years in triangle.f the iron it is pretty close to former saigon, ho chi minh city today. uncle and my father survived the war. now we are living in the same village. here, myra -- my work is lai and others at project renew. i have been working there for eight years. a few things i would like to share in today's session.

this is all about life. he has been challenged in life since the accident. he got support from organizations but his family and school teachers and doctors. the vietnamese agency is giving him proper support so he can get back to society and become a normal person. ai is fewher hand, l out of many, thousands of people people who than 8500 were victimized as a result of in the country. it's a long process.

many years from where lai became a casualty to becoming all person today. we don't have this kind of support in vietnam for many like lai. we would like to say that lai is fortunate. not fortunate but he got a good pension and people are caring to him so he can become stronger and become a normal person. that is what we call the support for the victims, survivors. he's not a victim. he is a survivor. it is not a single support but it is a long process. lai is living the opportunity of ofple taking on the capacity

their identity so they can become a part of this community. the second point i would like to share is about our work at project renew. we make it more informative information on this. we have been working here for many years. we have been there for 19 years so far. i am proud of that. we are the leading organization in vietnam. we have been trying to attack the problems of bombs and mines priorityg our of educating the community and offering the victims support. areaork on identifying the and clean up the land so we can

let people live in safety. we are confident from what we are doing. appealed in a humble manner. we will give more information about that. .e are confident we are trying to make it a safe place by 2025. the first area in vietnam. we will bring our best lessons learned out of that. there is a real need for other country where there has been almost zero cooperation on. from now through 2025.

a personal feeling. i a feel i have a good connection with my work in my area. a weeklong event here. that is good. connectionry good with what happened in the past. i learned from what we were taught in the classes. whenever i am able to be assessable with what has happened here. everything a person i met. i believe it makes it real contribution to the peace movement in different ways. we areve this morning in the u.s.aching

about vietnam. opinion, i believe without current existing home whati can bring i learned from this conference. we are able to integrate into our existing scope of work. we can reach out. tot year we reached out 40,000 children and elderly communities. it's important to be taken into account. i believe that is the best way to acknowledge to the contribution to the peace movement, to those who have been actively engaged and provide away from our people vietnam after many years of war and continue the mission into the future.

at least from our perspective in vietnam. that is all about the point i would like to make. [applause] myra: i want to introduce chuck. he gets mad when i say nice things about him. he glowers. lower away. -- glower away. chuck i met in the senate. so long ago i barely remember him. was at the dmz in 2013 and has continued and continued. soul of project renew. he started over 20 years ago. he is known as the unofficial

ambassador to vietnam. everybody i know goes to see chuck if you are there. he knows everybody it seems in the hierarchy of the government, the vietnamese government. momentsy great traveling somewhere and here is chuck and all these little people with him. they were all beaming up at him. he is this kind -- is as kind as he is tall. the whole experience of being at the dmz, which a lot of you will be fascinated by -- is that me? am i making that noise? happened to be an area that had been diluted to the point he looked like it was back during the war.

when we got there it was this brilliantly beautiful, sunny place. we went into a cave where several families had stayed throughout most of the war. we were bombing them back to the stone age as people would say. we were walking through in a remember you could barely move. we went deeper and deeper and there was a sign that said maternity ward. it was a little part that had been cut out of the cave part. 17 children have been born there during the war when we were bombing them. felt not with you just them but the resilience of chuck having worked for 20 years and keeps on doing. i think he has seen progress. i think he will tell a little more about now but this is a hero. [applause]

chuck: i want to retrieve my water here. myra, you are a wonderful writer. there is a reason you have editors and fact checkers. [applause] -- [laughter] a little fiction goes a long way. chuck: very nice to be with everybody. >> louder. chuck: nice to be with everybody for this wonderful week. thanks to ron and everyone responsible for putting it together. i will be fairly brief and give you a little more detail context of what we are doing in vietnam.

lai and phu just told you. injuriesis terrible are not that different from the fate a lot of vietnamese have suffered since the war ended many years ago. i did not know that when i went back to vietnam in 1995 to work for a veterans organization on a humanitarian program. working with doctors and nurses at my hospital in the children's hospital in hanoi with an orthopedic braces program i began to realize there was a terrible problem in vietnam. from thek reports newspaper about kids or farmers being blown up by munitions from the war. i thought, how can this be so many years later? this is still a problem. i should have known. i am a veteran.

has a u.s. citizen i felt like there is something wrong with this picture. there were other people who felt the same. in those days they were quite a lot of congressional delegations coming through. we discussed with them and the embassy staff the fact that there is consensus that u.s. has some responsibility for dealing with this problem. 100,000 people have been killed or injured since the war ended in 1975. that was a shocking figure from all of us. number fromreported the department of health and other agencies. there may be far more than that that we don't know about. push for the u.s. government to step in and help. thereately at that time was not much resistance. in fact, there was general agreement that this was the right thing to do. we do have some responsibility

for this. we used -- we dropped 8 million tons of bombs on vietnam. that is the lowest. -- viennese estimate is vietnamese estimate it is closer to 15 million, but that goes back to france in world war ii. times million tons is 2.5 the amount dropped on europe in the pacific during world war ii. you can envision the math. and is abouts' the same size of new mexico. imagine that tonnage of bombs and mines. the pentagon estimated about 10% probably did not detonate as intended. that is a huge a lot of residual mines on the ground or just under the surface, or some are quite deep. it's a serious problem. the vietnamese have been dealing with it through their military units.

it was not a priority. they did not have standardized practices. they mostly responded to demands for infrastructure clearance for building roads and bridges and hydroelectric dams. they would not go to a farmers -- or aor a rice field rice field to deal with one bomber one mine found. i had been working for the vietnam veterans of america foundation, an organization started by bobby mueller, a good friend and wonderful guy. the vietnam veterans memorial jan, which is headed up by

scruggs, traveled the country for about two weeks. we said we had to do something. what can we do that will make a difference? i proposed that they accept the challenge of the vietnamese to help them develop a really coherent strategy and a real plan to end this problem. to bring an end to the legacy of bombs and mines. --a that came project renew out of that came project renew which we are all connected with today. in 2001, would begin this project with a very small staff. there were two of us, then five, then 15. now i guess we have -- i'm not even know. 250 i think. education,on risk which is teaching the kids and the adults, the farmers, how to

be safe and identify the ordinance. how to understand what it is and what the danger is. and to call in the threat they have identified so somebody can come clean it up. that was a modestly successful effort. however we were out of balance because we did not have a response capacity. people to call in that they found a couple of cluster munitions. had come later, no one to clean it up because we don't have a response team. working with the u.s. department of state and other donors we finally managed to establish some clearance teams, de-mining to respond to these calls from local people. we haltingly continued to grow and expand and organize properly

we were approached by norwegian people's aid, a huge and very good international organization based in norway. capacity forir own de-mining and clearance. they work in about 30 countries. they wanted to come to vietnam and partner with project renew because they liked the fact it was totally staffed and controlled by the vietnamese. i was the only foreigner. i had mostly been the only foreigner. i don't run the project. i am part of the team. i am there to help them in any way i can. the more regions -- norwegians rod huge budget from the norwegian government, which was wonderful. they used their oil money very wisely. they brought an expertise. our capacity began to grow very

rapidly. by 2008, we were well equipped with teams, trucks, equipment, de-mining equipment, all the training we could possibly want, and the risk education program which has expanded into several districts in the province. province. npa also introduced survey mechanisms, which basically became the third part of a three-pronged approach to xo problem.h the u by that time we have been provided with department of defense maps of old bombing runs. we had some basic data that was not precisely correct but a good indicator of what the airplanes had done. with these maps the teams with -- would go village to village and say according to our

information there was a bombing strike in 1967. there is probably some residual ordinance. most of the time people would say yes, thank you for coming. one time at a 23 might say no, we don't have a problem. but that hill over there, there's a big problem. they have been living there for years. that combination of factual information let us to deal with everything with an evidence-based approach. it became much more efficient, less costly, and much more productive. the surveycal -- team finds out what the situation is and decide what to do, the next day maybe a team will come back and work for the next two weeks. they may cleanup 50 or 100 bombs in every situation. the other part is the kids in school.

the kids at the visitor center who come in on a field day. they have a field trip so they are happy to get out of school and come into town and come to the visitor center. phu -- oren lai for phu and the staff give them training that includes information, artwork, songs, dances. 's.m impressed with lai everybody pays attention. i like your singing, lai. you are good. the kids, believe me, they sit on the floor and listen to his story. they learn. they learn a lot more than they would learn if i order phu was telling them they should not -- i or phu was telling them they should not play with it.

over the years a number of accidents and injuries and deaths have decreased steadily. in 2008, we had our full capacity in place. we had everything we needed. there were 72 casualties in the province. people killed or injured by bombs and mines. every year since then the number has gone down. 2018, last year, was the first year since the war ended in 1975 that there were zero accidents in the province. [applause] year so far, zero accidents. that has been the goal all along. we sometimes make the mistake of money to quantify everything. how many bombs have you cleaned up? we keep records of that. we keep records of everything,

but the real mission is to make vietnam safe. it is not going to happen. there are too many of them. they keep moving around after storms, disasters, floods. bombsre still cleaning up in world war i and world war ii in germany, france and countries in europe. we have to keep at it day after day for many decades to come, but the problem can be managed. that is the key. managing for safety. the training of kids will have to continue year after year starting in kindergarten and first great, third-grade, fifth-grade, high school. their alertness and responsiveness calling in these safe and keeps them their families and neighbors safe. to show you some

pictures but i forgot about it. i'm not sure they are worth really looking at. i will flip through things quickly. i think i have told you most of this. there is a map of vietnam. the middle of the country is the most contaminated area as you can see from the red spots. risk education is one of the components of our work. we have trained and taught a lot of children. the figure is not correct because one of our -- that's the accident chart over the last few years. the last decade. you can see the last two years including this year are zero accidents. occasionallyation good things fall into our lap. a few years ago we were approached by a company based in

los angeles. they advertise on the internet and tv. a young guy realize kids rather world were going barefoot it did not have any shoes. he wanted to give them shoes. he started this company. shoes, a pair of tom's and another pair goes free to a kid somewhere in the world. the marketing slogan is one-for-one. they wanted to partner with project renew. we decided to make it part of the risk education program. now when the risk education team goes out to schools they have a half-day of education about safety. at the end of that the kids get a new parachute. especially ineat, the ethnic minority area of the mountains. a lot of those kids had never worn shoes before. they are happy to have new

shoes. they are sort of lightweight kansas loafers with good so les. -- lightweight, canvas loafers with good soles. there is our team currently. thehe way, today we have first in vietnam all women de-mining team. [applause] phu can confirm this. the staff is much more gender conscious than i am. we have meetings about various things. well, we have to think about gender balance. we better line-up more women in this interview. they are very conscientious about that. we have an all woman team and their excellent. here's a picture of them in the

bottom corner. our teams, we work closely with the other de-mining organizations. for a long time there was a attitude and competitiveness for funding. the state department, which has now stepped up and is providing most of the funding, intervened and said look, we will provide significant funding for this province to develop a model that really works. if you want some money, you will do it our way. our way is you will work closely together. they forced the ngo's to get together. now everybody works closely together. ok, got it. i was going to say give me a five minute warning, but one minute is good enough. [laughter] that is working very well. in short, the effort is

successful. the model that has been created in the province by the vietnamese is a good one. a lot of people say, when he you going to expand into other provinces? it has started. in a quiet way. phu and other colleagues at project renew have gone several times to visit other provinces at their request to talk about how to start a similar program there. it is where the meal i met secure occurred -- mi lai massacre occurred. one of our beneficiaries is a good guy and has overcome his devastating accident. he is one of many. picture lai lai of which and phu are a key part in

all of our other colleagues. our goal is to make vietnam safe. we think we are on the track to do it. we are dependent on continued, sustained funding from the u.s. thanks to senator lahey and a few other key members of congress we think the appropriations, the source of the money -- nothing has ever come to the white house budget. it has all come from congress. we think that will continue. we don't see any signs that president trump is even interested or aware of it or has any notions of changing anything. we don't have too much apprehension about that. final note. comment is that this has been a long time coming. it is now working. we are on track. i as a veteran an american citizen think it is the right thing to do.

what happened there was ours possibility. what continues to happen to kids, lai and others is ours possibility. we need to clean up the problem and bringing into accidents and injuries. thank you. [applause] >> i remember a quote from senator lahey saying, how can this be that we have allowed a whole nation of children who cannot even walk out of there houses or write a bike down the street? his vehemence was wonderful. i do not know how far it moved people but we need more of that. >> he has been wonderful. a great friend. last, but not least, she

recently joined gw law as interim director of the environmental energy law program and is visiting associate professor of law. she has long been interested in the relationship between conflict prevention and resolution in environmental conservation and management. since 2000, she has organized and managed conferences and field studies for environmental and energy law professors in the energy,environmental climate change, and disaster management. her new book come out recently, is called comparative and global environmental law policy and she will be using this text for her gw summer semester. thank you.

here.nk you for having me since i am the caboose on this train, i will keep it short. i will be talking about three things. the environmental legacy of the agent orange operation in vietnam, the wider problem of munitions, and some new initiatives that may be helpful for us. vietnam, planted insidious seeds of environmental destruction in vietnam. , those human victims problems with the environment will last for generation. american scientists were kept out of vietnam for years since

the beginning of operation ranch they were unable to confer with their vietnamese colleagues. there was no ability to get into the country at all. credit,ntists, to their , individual scientists, american association of science, everyone who cared about this issue, they lobbied congress to getto get them there to some kind of environmental assessment. they lobbied the administration. they absolutely were faced with tactics andll refused the ability to go. finally, in 1970, many years after the campaign got started, a team of researchers were led

into make -- or let into make an evaluation. in their carefully worded swaths of vietnam's mangroves, signature water trees, as well as unintended targets such as rubber plantations, which provided a large part of vietnam's income, and farms owned by families, a lot of them were destroyed by direct hits from the campaign or from wind blowing agent orange for possibly miles. unintended targets of the campaign. of course, it created great misery and suffering to the population as well as dramatic declines in the species that the scientists were even able to

find in that region. studyame back with their and as it became public, scientists claimed a new term -- ecocide. we had a name that was going on -- for what was happening in vietnam and elsewhere. there was only one clear environmental winner from the war. i will read it to you straight out of the report. it was in the science journal of may 1970. because of the war, all hunting and the republic of vietnam has been officially discontinued. nevertheless, there are large numbers of armed men in the forest, many of whom are poorly nourished. deprivation of food was a classic tactic in vietnam. presumably, they shoot all suitable forest animals. tigers seem to have benefited from the war.

years,past when he for -- 24 years, they have learned to associate the sound of gunfire with the presence of dead and wounded human beings in the vicinity. as a result, tigers move toward gunfire and consume large numbers of battle casualties. i just got sick to my stomach reading that. although there are no accurate statistics on the tiger populations past or present, it is likely the tiger population has increased as much as the wolf population in poland increased in world war ii. war was the dawn of our understanding of eco-cide and it has been carried out in various ways. according to recent studies, the 1977 civil war in mozambique

destroyed 90% of the large park asin the national government troops and resistant fighters hunted protected elements for ivory -- protected elephants for ivory to buy supplies. shotnumbers of animals or or died of starvation. this is not an isolated phenomenon. all wars think that are wars on the environment it affects what -- it affects things way beyond humans . we don't think about what else is being lost. consider a more difficult issue, the issue of munitions and unexploded ordinances.

will limit my i remark to the munitions issue. on u.s. department of defense site as a result of many decades of past military training and weapons testing activities, according to dod's environmental research programs, munitions are of currentthousands and former dod sites. acresncompass millions of . 39,000 contaminated sites causing contamination of land and water. many of these sites, munitions are found in underwater or coastal environments and lots of munitions contaminations has come from disposal and accidents in coastal and inland waters in the united states. in all, our army corps of

engineers and navy identified more than 400 underwater sites contaminated with munitions. i talked earlier about scenes of destruction -- there are seeds of hope as well that have been planted in its aftermath. one of my friends at the environmental law institute has dedicated his career to environmental peace building and there is a new environmental peace building association which is a partnership between you and u.n.ronment and other -- yo environment and other critical partnerships. it will help the world understand how to make natural resources a reason for peace rather than a reason for conflict.

that is one of the hopeful things. another, which i'm a little conflated about, many of the contaminated military sites have been designated as wildlife areas by the dod. forbidden tole are go into those sites, for obvious reasons. people would get blown up. it is a mixed blessing. you hope for the best for the wildlife atlanta there but increasingly, -- the wildlife that land there but increasingly, military sites may be their only refuge. it is something to think about. along those lines, i read an article about there is new drone technology that combines drones with some kind of grabbing technology that is a little less

high-tech and the drones safely uxo's. my hope is that we can talk the dod into sharing that technology in vietnam. scientist thathe first raised the alarm about lobbying toe been make it some -- an international crime. it has been gaining traction. the law commission has drafted new rules on protection on the environment in relation to armed conflicts. if we could get some teeth into that and not water it down, as the u.s. usually does, that can make a difference. my last bit of hope is that -- if you doient not do a thorough enough job of

extermination, it will do its best to recover. vietnam's ecology is slowly coming back. we can still give it a lot of help. if you would like some more information, more resources, i can share a resource list with you if you email me. my email address is online. thank you for your attention. [applause] >> do we have time for -- we have about 15 minutes, is that it? 11 minutes. this has to be quick. one quick shout out that we sally. steve nichols and she is hiding. sally benson. they are a couple and the most

important thing is they were the people who funded the visitor new.er for project re [applause] >> who wants to be quick with questions? >> [inaudible] you talked about expanding into some of the nearby provinces. [inaudible] the potential for project renew to spur on other coalitions? >> we don't really know. one of the first things we would have to do would be to conduct a survey to determine the nature of the problem.

that is fairly extensive and toaustive and if we continue get data from the department of defense, we could compare bombing runs. go ahead. last year, earlier this year, ony released a new report this landmine impact survey. contamination in vietnam in most of indicated that those had been in the central and central highlands. it was something that was approved and released by the

ministry of defense. that as baseline information. our services bring thee must take into account chemical aspect. embracing major pillars of work. that is a strong linkage of the education program can be a great support for the operation. organizing.started

we started with raising awareness among high-level persons. atlier this year, we started the grassroots level and we were bring our education program. the reason we do not want to expand our program they are too , wee scale -- program there are in the process of analysis, informationdequate the political , the capacity of the local partners.

we tried to work with our local partner so we could build up capacity by providing hands-on activities. so step-by-step, they will be taking it over from us. i believe that in two years further we can collect adequate information along with takingtners, we will be technical things into the province. this will not happen overnight.

we are pretty slow on that. we do not want to be wasting resources. we need to reach out. we are confident. that kind of approach, we will be taking into other areas, like the central highlands of vietnam. demands a supply and dynamic. encounter ordinance and it is never reported. if there is capacity that builds up, suddenly you start to see

people calling in when they find ordinance. we do not know yet though -- we do not know yet, though. >> we have time for one question, i think. >> i do not see any names of major corporations on that chart that have brought us agent and the unexploded ordinances. do they have any sense of their accountability and responsibility? >> is that a question for us? to?ave you ever been able >> [inaudible] >> a friend in washington, who i thought might be here today, he has an idea.

made companies that ordinance should be held legally accountable for product defects. because it did not explode. it is lurking there as a late killer 50 years later. and he is serious. >> i would like to introduce our final speaker. , who weteri province owe a lot to for this whole week and who helps on the actual construction of the easels down on the second floor which hold the panels for the exhibit and if you happen to see the exhibit

, i suggest that on the way to the lobby to join us on the march to the white house or on your way home, if you are not up for that, that you stop at the second floor and take a look at this exhibit. for those who have friends who will come at a later date, you should know that exhibit will be there in the atrium on the second floor through december 12. what has happened in washington over the last 50 years, that is where he was. the stop b-1 bomber campaign, the nuclear freeze the defense of daniel, the daily death toll, medical chant -- medical aid for indochina -- are there more? where is he?

there he is. there is more. there is more now and he will give us a great wrap up. .e will have the final word i want to say to everyone here thank you. and. we have candles for everyone. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. linda and ron have asked me to say a few words in a way -- as a way of wrapping up and to give you information about the walk. i know it is getting late but i appreciate your patience and i know it is happy hour somewhere, too, so hang in there. i have gotten to know a lot of you which has been my pleasure. i have seen you at all of the events and i can recognize you by your handwriting by now.

even more so, i know this building pretty well i know were the paperclips are, i know where the wine is, and i know where the secrets are hidden. back and say a few things about 50 years ago, let's look forward to 50 years from now. i think i'm going to ask my 18-year-old son ian, who my adopted when he was four months old, to name his first child, regardless of gender, elliott. 50 years from now, 2069, that child will be 50 years old. imagine from now, let's legacye information and that we leave and what other generations and constituencies and sectors to, -- sectors do,

there will be less violence, more peace, and fewer wars. that there will be an environmental sustainability that will -- enable life in all its forms to exist and thrive unless climate crisis. that there will be more just and fair distribution of wealth and less poverty and there will be much more respect for all people , less racism, less sexism and less xenophobia. that is what i would like for my son when he will be 68 at that time and elliott, his child, as well. people who have much respect for all peoples, i would like to invite linda to come forward. [applause]

linda, i would like for you to know that it has been a pleasure to work with you these past four months and you are one of the more remarkable and pleasant people to cooperate with and some people know i had some health issues earlier this year. the opportunity to work with you gave me purpose and meaning enjoy. -- meaning and joy. i would like to show you that gratitude and congratulate you for all the work you have done. this is a small token of appreciation. [applause] 50 years from now, i expect to see you doing the same thing. >> thank you so much. it has been an immense pleasure to work with all of you and the wonderful people you were able to bring here. are amazing.ons

it has been a tremendous honor to be part of this endeavor. >> this could not have happened without your energy, imagination, spirit, and commitment. it was a pleasure. [applause] i have gotten to know each of you and all of you have your own individual journeys and pasts. two things stand out for me, one of the most memorable things was heard that i heard -- i heard was said by mary. revolutionary. dot? is in a hospital which was

destroyed in the 1972 christmas bombing raid. we rebuilt the ear, nose, and throat institute. he is working for the federal government now. he works to make sure roofs don't blow off when hurricanes happen. he has done a lot of work in puerto rico. letter in 1965. johnson called for a day of morer and i said we need than a day of prayer. i finished my last year of college in europe where i got radicalized.

i came back in august of 1969 in worked on the desk worked pittsburgh and came to december., d.c., in who would have known what difference that would make? this has been a memorable week, mind you. it almost -- almost as memorable as 50 years ago today. i remember well something we have not talked about yet, coming down here for the march against death and staying on the floor in sleeping bags in the basement of all souls church which had a basketball court. there was more lovemaking in that basketball court and i said, i am definitely joining this movement. i guarantee you that there is a march against death person alive today who got conceived that

night as well as the mobilization the next night. i think we should find those two wonderful people. three quick things about what we did. and one thing we did not. several people ask this because jane fonda is here every friday. she sends her greetings to all of you and we also invited daniel ellsberg who was planning to come until monday. his health has prevented him from doing that. one of the first things i want to point out is, who would have soulssleeping in the all basketball court that i and you would be part of a movement that would keep nixon from using nuclear weapons? had we known we had that power

and had we known we had that much influence, we might have organized ourselves a little differently or in ways we could capture that momentum. one of the things we did was to keep nixon and kissinger from doing what they had planned. it was kissinger who said, ellsberg is the most dangerous man in america. for what he knew. the most dangerous man in america today is in the white house. roger stone was convicted of all seven counts this morning. [applause] apist, i call him agent orange. everything he touches, he kills. anyhow, it is ellsberg. i will read what he wrote to you. for many years, when i spoke

about the vietnam war, i would ask an audience, how many have participated in demonstrations, orches on october 15 november 15, 1969? thoseaudiences, most of over college age would raise their hands. a number who were clearly under that age would also have raised those hands. i would pick out one of the youngest and asked, how old were you then? i would hear seven or two. i asked how they got to the rally and they would say, in stroller or backpack. they did not remember it but their parents told them. i said, you are doing exactly the same things your parents were, being counted in big cities. you were preventing imminent nuclear war, prolonging a moratorium on nuclear war from 1949-1969 and now, too. thank you.

none of them knew that last part . i suspect there were many here today, you do not know it yet. though you were not in backpacks have beenof you may pulling strollers. i was in the crowd at ucla on october 15 and in golden state park on november 15. the secret knowledge that president nixon was on a course that would prolong and expand the war in my belief that would eventually lead to the use of nuclear weapons. not -- iinkling, i did could not have imagined that a white house and pentagon team under nixon had spent the month of october refining plans for a vast escalation of the war planned for november 3. that included possible use of nuclear weapons in north vietnam for which targets and the borders of china and laos had

been picked. those plans were put on hold by nixon on the eve of the moratorium rally after the intelligence community had predicted that the countrywide demonstrations on november 15 would be the largest in history. they were right. with 2 million people on the streets that day across the nation, nixon understood that he would increase the number tenfold if he chose to renew the bombing of north vietnam. the attack across the border of laos, cambodia, and north vietnam, let alone if he used nuclear weapons. escalations out the piecemeal over the last few seriouslywas discussing nuclear tax in 1972. the moratorium on nuclear war has been extended to today, half a century. you did that. and again, thank you.

it remains to be extended again, this year, through our children's lifetime as we struggle to make the abolition of nuclear danger permanent. that will require no less than your commitment, organization, activism then was exhibited 50 years ago. wass -- that president effective -- precedent was crucially effective, far more than any of us could have known at the time. us here in0,000 of washington on november 15, which is about the same number of soldiers in vietnam. the second thing that strikes me ron immense gratitude to and all of the other vets here and gis who resisted. i had no idea how serious opposition within the military

was at the time. absolutely no idea. i knew there were veterans organizations that came home and protested. i think it is fair to say, as i had no ideaout, how steep and deep it was and this is something that really touches me. we could go into the streets and we can come home and we could protest and sign letters and come home. we could keep doing this. i was in 14 jails in a week or so. if you resist the war when you are in the military, the implications and risks you are taking are much more severe. immeasurable. hats off to those who did that. that was such courage and commitment.

i think it is a sterling example -- [applause] know,st thing you already the united states government having done what it did in ,ietnam, laos and cambodia still owe a lot to the people of those countries as well as the gis and veterans. finished with the indochina. we did in thankfully, there are people working on that and hopefully, the government will find more resources to make that more real. -- therprises me is this impeachment hearings going on right now and the reason why people think trump is mueller -- vulnerable is because they are saying every day on npr and cs

nbc that he has violated something that has not been done before by doing a circle loop to ukraine and russia to use a foreign country to impact the elections of the united states. because that is such a huge step out of the norm, he is more vulnerable. hopefully, he is more vulnerable. nixon tried the very same thing in 1968, when69, he was running for president, he communications -- he had communications with the north sign any treaty before the elections. this conspiracy involving other countries has happened before and nixon did it and johnson charged him with treason, did not have him brought to justice

on that. trump is not the first one to do it. i hope the reason -- if he can say nixon did it and got away with it, he can say, i can get away with it, too. there is another example. that was something we did not talk about. it has been in the press before but it did not come to our attention. on other coincidence is that april 30, 1970, is when nixon ordered the invasion of cambodia that made a lot of things happen. april 30, five years later, 1975, when the war ended. he was gone by then. another coincidence in terms of the one thing that also

happened was the killings at kent state and jackson state and the media is interested in knowing what people are going to do and think and say around that. 1970,y after april 30, was the call for the national student strike. the kent state killings were on may 4 in the jackson state killings were on may 15. in 2020, the vietnam case commemoration committee is people at a three .ost office counts that we have at least 100 local between maynytime

1, 2020,-may 15, 2020, to also -- work withbeing high school students protesting against shootings and black lives matter. to keep the commemoration of these events alive. i appreciate your cooperation. as we did in 1969, we will reenact in 2019, we will move from here downstairs into the for a short program and will distribute candles and signs and we will give you the names of vietnamese people in villages. after that program, we have a permit --

>> [inaudible] >> not just remembering what 1969 but american veterans that died after 1969 as well. we will be escorted by the police and we will have one lane of traffic and we will go to the white house. mary will say a few words. paul will say a few words. peter. , you willt period come forward to a microphone and give out the names of the vietnam allies -- vietnamese village or person. if you will take all of your stuff, you can use the elevators judiciously and the stairs, we will see you at 6:00 for the first short program. thank you very much.

tvthis is american history on c-span3. each weekend, we feature 48 hours of programs exploring our nation's past. this weekend on american history tv, author and musician jonathan rosenberg talks about his new book dangerous melodies, classical music in america from the great war the cold war, which explores the intersection of politics and music in the first half of the 20 century. here's a preview. first enduring debate on the relationship between art and politics in the united states, .t was a bitter debate and i call them the musical

nationalists and the musical universalists. the musical nationalists saw the world as a perilous place. they were convinced the act of listening to pieces by certain composers or attending performances by particular singers, instrumentalists or conductors could somehow contaminate the country or even in danger the american people. at those moments when the country felt vulnerable, the musical nationalists favored banning the music of certain composers or preventing certain artists from performing in the nations concert halls and opera houses. unlike the musical nationalists, the universalists were convinced that art transcended politics and national rivalries. they believed music could act as a unifier, a force for uplift, perhaps a catalyst for global cooperation.

the musical universalists saw classical music as a universal language, which could speak to all of humanity's hopes and dreams. for many years, the debate between the musical nationalists and universalists roiled in newspapers, magazines, and competing public pronouncements. the passion heightened classical music's political significance across the country. >> learn more about the intersection between politics and music in the first half of the 20 century sunday at 4:30 p.m. eastern on american history tv, only on c-span3. in june of 1944, the soviet army launched a massive offensive against the germy army -- the german army on the eastern front. the greatest