floor in shreveport, louisiana attempted, it didn't happen. we believe it is going to happen and we hope to be there when it does. from all of us here in new york huckabee,staff of good knigh night and see you, everybody. god bless. captioned by, closed captioning services, inc. said a criminal. >> my apw were black because of blood. >> oliver: the only war america lpu could we have won? >> easily, easily. >> oliver: was itúqpw>=med fromy the start? >> you wanted an advisor who would tell him what he wanted to hear. in

beirut, thanks.pw next news break, bottom of the t'r?ries with oliver north"q

÷y american infantryman can't be pushed, they have to be led from tzu front. this statue called follow me úwú/es tzu spirit of the the perilous business of war on the ground. on the gr north, this is war stories. coming to you from fort coming t georgia, home of the u.s. army infantry since 1918. during the 1960's and 70's, hundreds of thousands of young@@ soldiers honed their combat skills here. but american involvement in southeast asia began years before our first air and ground combat units arrived in 1965. early in the cold war against communists, the eisenhower administration spent billions fight against ho chi minh. supported himho chi minh. when he was our ally against

the japanlá ñ in world war ii. how did the united states find itself embroiled in vietnam fighting war that would last more than a decades and cost more than 58,000 american lives and sear our national soul. tonight, flash point vietnam, the road to war. that's next on war stories. >> they were always talking about this thing ending soon. >> i would say that we have a commitment to vietnamese freedom. >> we were asked to write letters home. >> peace is a journey of a thousand miles. i'd only been out of the state of west virginia a couple of times when i joined the marine corps.

>> oliver: in 1960, ernie wallace was a 16-year-old in wayne county, west virginia. >> upon graduation there was only two things to do in our area, that was work in the coal mines or construction. and i was not very much for work so i wanted to see some world. >> i always wanted to be a marine. the old poster, be a mud marine. >> like ernie wallace, 18-year-old oklahomaen joined on the eve of america's war in vietnam. i went in the marine corps in december of 59, went to boot camp in 60. >> oliver: three years after ed arrived at boot camp, 18-year-old ed martin from tippen, ohio tried to join the army. >> the army recruiter wasn't there and one of the marines, the marines recruiter wasn't there and the navy chief said, hey. >> oliver: step in here. >> i joined the navy. >> oliver: had you heard of vietnam? >> i had heard of it when i was in high school, but it was

just another country. >> oliver: just another country? vietnam's dense jungles, cloud-draped mountains and waterlogged rice paddies are much like its history, complex and dangerous. >> the vietnamese are want to go spread the french out. >> oliver: he's a professor of history at clemson university. >> in the mid 19th century, catholic missionaries were being persecuted in vietnam and in china and this issue was a part of what brought france into involvement in both vietnam and china. >> oliver: the french colony of indoe china included vietnam, laos and cambodia. thousands of french migrated to asia in search of wealth, made second class citizen nz their own country, the

vietnamese resisted french occupation with violence. at the end of world war i, american president woodrow wilson envisioned a new world forum. founded at the paris peace conference in 1919, the league of nations was intended to be a new arena for people and countries to hash out their differences. this high minded concept appealed to one young man in particular. >> he showed up at the paris peace conference, wanting better treatment for vietnam and he was basically told, shoo, shoo, go away. that's for white people. >> oliver: the man ignored would later become known to the world as ho chi minh, loosely translated it means bringer of light. morn in 1890, the youngest of three children. he witnessed his father's

frustration at the repression he felt under french rule. at age 21 he traveled to france as a ship's cook to see how the other half lived. ho chi minh would dedicate his life to a single purpose, vietnamese independence. enthralled by the russian revolution, turned to the first world's communist power. >> the new russian revolutionary government was an enemy of all the capitalist governments. the reason he became a communist, it looked like a good avenue for national independence for vietnam. >> oliver: in 1920 while still in france, he helped found the french communist party and soon was living in moscow. >> he is given some training by the communist international, in organizational techniques and he is able to create what is officially founded in 1930 as the indoe chinese communist

party. >> oliver: uses dozens of aliases he traveled asia preparing the people to fight for their nms. >> his original name was win tut, tut. and only fell into the use of ho chi minh by accident and got arrested under it and he was stuck with the name he had been arrested under. >> oliver: during world war ii, america had some unlikely allies. when france fell to hitler, control of indoe china was lost to the japanese and ho chi minh and his guerillas joined fights against america's enemy. >> his main goal is to try to win the friendship of the united states government. >> i wanted to be a part of the war from day one. >> oliver: while ho chi minh battled the chinese, billy made a first attempt to get into the fight. >> i ran off in 1945 tried to join the marine corps, said too young. said i was 18 and he said i

was not and put me in jail until i told who my mother was and she hauled me back to texas and i got a tail whipping for that. >> oliver: billy would have to wait for his chance. the end of world war 2 brought peace and jubilation to many. when paris sent troops back to vietnam he had a message for the french. >> he said to them, you will kill ten of us for every one that you kill and you will get tired of it first. >> oliver: in 1940's, ho chi minh fought the french, america was focused on its own post war problems. >> the french were fighting for colonialism, that's not nice. and the vietnamese are communist-led and that's not nice, but the only nice thing, it's not hour problem. >> oliver: the cold war made it our problem. >> they started getting military aid across the border from china the beginning of 1950 and the intensity of combat, the scale of combat

goes way up. >> oliver: by the 1950's, america was at war against north korea and then communist china. we also supported the fight against ho chi minh to the tune of 2 billion dollars. >> by 1954, the american taxpayers are paying more for the where than the vietnam and french taxpayers are. >> oliver: 20,000 french soldiers were defeated in din vin fu. killing 2000 and taking over 9,000 prisoners and the victory came with a steep price, of the 100,000 or so viters, 8,000 killed, another 15,000 wounded. >> paratroopers dropped in, and we didn't know where that was. >> oliver: in 1954, everett alvarez was a 16-year-old high school student in salinas, california dreaming of flying. a decade later, vietnam would make him one of the world's most famous pilots.

>> i didn't care what i flew or what model, as long as i flew jets. >> oliver: jfk and robert mcnamara called them advisors, but the elite warriors did much more than teach the south vietnamese military to fight. often they founduu

>> mays races to the center field bleachers, makes the >> races to the center field bleachers, next to the play. ♪ >> in the summer of 1954, sex goddess marilyn monroe filmed one of her most famous on screen moments. 70 years of french chone yal rule was ending. >> it all came to a head at the battle. president eisenhower decided to broker the geneva accords of 1954. >> oliver: hr mcmaster is the

author of dereliction of duty the lies that led to vietnam. >> the geneva acards marked an end for the french in vietnam. >> oliver: the greems split vietnam in 2 at the 17th parallel and called for a nationwide election in 1956. the communist north and democratic south were to be united under the winner and the nationwide ballot never occurred and in the south, he held on it power after what was widely perceived to be a rigged vote. >> you have a >> the vietnam fell to the communist then all >> the vietnam fell to the communists and then all southeast asian countries would also fall. ♪ >> oliver: publicly the eisenhower administration applauded his anti-communist regime providing south vietnam

with hundreds of millions in aid, privately, there were serious concerns. >> nobody felt that this government could really survive. but it was almost as if it was a miracle. and he had consolidated power in the south. communist activity was reduced. the economy was beginning to develop. >> it had more to do with ho chi minh was up to. and in the who are the ho was consolidating power and preparing for the next war. so, in effect, the american backers have a free ride for a couple of years. >> i john fitzgerald kennedy do solemnly swear-- >> oliver: a democratic president took office and faced the same enemies. jfk let friend and foe know where he stood. >> we shall support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. (applause). >> he confronts an intensification of the insurgency in south vietnam.

>> oliver: when do you make your first deployment into southeast asia. >> in 1960, i went from laos, i spent six months there and then went over to vietnam. >> oliver: 15 years after being turned away by the marine corps, billy wall was an army special forces noncommissioned officer. he and his a-team were some of the first americans to seek combat in southeast asia. >> sperk forces trained their men and then accompanied these men into combat to kill the enemy. they weren't there to train, they were there to get them in good shape. >> oliver: by the end of kennedy's first year in office, there were over 3,000 military advisors like billy in vietnam. >> there's the pretense they're there as advisors, and the reality is americans are starting to be put into combat. >> here is a report from secretary of defense. >> oliver: jfk lured his new secretary of defense from the

presidency of ford motor company. >> he had a reputation of a brilliant analyst and mcnamara came in with the charge to clean up the department of defense and make it more efficient and came in with hundreds of initiatives, lots of requirements so he met a lot of resistance initially and built a great deal of animosity. >> oliver: his relationship with the joint chiefs was strained at best and the tense atmosphere, leaders of our military and government were forced to face one of america's greatest post world war ii challenges. october 1962 cuban missile crisis. >> the soviet union has put nuclear weapons in the island just off the u.s. coast. >> anytime it starts picking missiles, down in cuba, that's too close. >> oliver: the cuban missile crisis heelingts up the cold war, that's next on

>> oliver: 14 october, 1962, a u.s. reconnaissance aircraft ofotographs >> 14 october, 1962, a u.s. reconnaissance aircraft takes these photographs of soviet ss 4 missiles in cuba, a direct threat to america. >> two days later, jfk had a tense meeting with advisors, including his brother bobby and chairman of joint chiefs of staff, maxwell taylor and robert mcnamara. >> the chiefs felt as if a full scale invasion was the most likely option and >> the chiefs felt as if a full scale invasion was the most likely option and secretary mcnamara felt that we had to gradually increase the level of force in cuba.

>> kennedy sided with mcnamara and a blockade of cuba pushed the soviets and americans to the brink of nuclear war. on 28 october, nikita khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles if the united states promised not to invade cuba and secretly kennedy promised to withdraw jupiter missiles from turkey. >> mcnamara came out of the cuban missile crisis emboldened, he was write the chiefs were wrong, what he didn't recognize the deal to trade u.s. missiles for turkey and cuba was what was decisive. >> he began applying increase in force to another looming crisis, vietnam. a little over two months after the missile crisis, three american advisors were killed at the battle, 30 miles south of saigon. in february 1963, 40-year-old advisor robert net from new

haven connecticut arrived in vietnam. net, a world war ii medal of honor recipient had served in korea. by the end of 1963, nearly 16,000 advisors like net were serving in south vietnam. how much combat were they seeing at that point? >> i would say three, four months a year. >> oliver: and they're up against what, viet cong or nva? >> both. i felt that they were well prepared because they had our equipment. and they were being trained by us. tan they were getting a taste of combat. >> oliver: the nva were the north vietnamese regular army and viet cong or vc were south communist guerillas, both formidable enemies. >> when you're going out on a patrol you're predominantly in the hands and safety of the indigenous troops that you trained. did you have any anxieties about how reliable these guys

are? >> none at all. because we trained them and we were paying them very good money. i wasn't going to watch him and watch the nva, too. >> oliver:, but the embattled president and viet cong and nva were weren't the only problems. >> his brother the head of the secret police brutally oppressed any opposition to the government. this was particularly true in connection with the buddhist monks. buddhist monks began it to light themselves on fire in protest against the government. this put kennedy and his advisors in a very difficult position. >> this crisis turned the united states very hesitantly against him. >> oliver: and as the problems mounted in '63, the troops near the dmz and agreed upon line between the communist controlled north and democratic south, but the nva didn't play by the rules. and the nva could cost anytime

they wanted and we couldn't cross it? >> well, i think we crossed it several times, sometimes accidentally and sometimes in pursuit. >> oliver: i know by the time i got there, there was enormous frustration with the fact that you-- you know, we weren't allowed to go in. were you seeing that same frustration among americans as early as '63? >> no, i wasn't. >> oliver: did you get a sense that this was going to work? >> until the president was assassinated, everything collapsed. >> we knew that he was going to fall, it was in air. >> oliver: when word after planned coup bu south vietnamese generals reached the white house, kennedy promised not to interfere or cut aid to south vietnam. >> and they're found with bullet holes in their head in the back of the american made personnel carrier.

>> it didn't affect us at all. we didn't really care who was running the >> it didn't affect us at all. really didn't care who was running the country. >> only three weeks after he and his brother were assassinated, kennedy himself was assassinated in dallas. so this is a huge turning point in the vietnam war. because the new president now has to confront this very difficult situation. >> i can't get out, i just can't be the architect of surrender. >> oliver: and the vietnamese attacked two u.s. destroyers andjarrett, war stories with

oliver north returns right now and for the the latest headlines log on to our website, foxnews.com., >> oliver: president john f. kennedy and south vietnam's president were both murdered in november of '63. both assassinations profoundly affected the course of events in vietnam. >> there was nobody really ready to take over his job so this began a period of what was later called revolving door governments. >> oliver: on 22 november, 1963, vice-president lynn done baines johnson became the 36th

president of the united states. >> johnson has bad feelings about vietnam, if he should not continue to struggle in vietnam, he would be seen as having betrayed the legacy of kennedy. what johnson wants most in 1964 is to be elected in his own right as president. and he views vietnam, principally, as a danger to that goal. he said, vietnam is the biggest damn mess i've ever seen. >> oliver: in january of 1964, the man who would command america's troops in vietnam, general william westmorland arrived in saigon. >> he begins to realize that he needs a larger commitment of force just to stabilize the situation. >> oliver: the u.s. arrival of the beatles in early 1964 was met with youthful frenzy.

but in washington, lbj had bigger things on his mind. >> lyndon johnson was running a campaign and it would foul up his campaign strategy if he did something in vietnam. >> oliver: it was a war that was being launched in slow motion. >> just a gradual >> oliver: it was a war that was being lost in very slow motion. >> just a gradual downhill slide. >> oliver: despite lb j's growing concern over the war's effect on his campaign, alpha was in full swing, a covert operation that sent asian mercenaries in north vietnam to carry out attacks on the communists. u.s. navy destroyers were also on top secret intelligence gathering missions along the north vietnamese coast. on 2 august, 1964, one of those destroyers was attacked. >> the three north vietnamese navy tore pee doe boats went

out and they lost the fight. >> oliver: washington called the attacks unprovoked and claimed it was on a routine patrol in international waters. two days later, on a moonless, rain swept night, the maddux accompanied by the uss sea turner joy was picking up what seemed to be high speed vessels on the radar, both ships opened fire. >> i'm confident there was no attack. that what they were seeing was ghosts on their radar. generated by the weather. >> oliver: when the smoke cleared, the captain kabld pearl harbor and the message forwarded to washington said review of action makes many reported contacts and tore pee does fired appear doubtful. but lbj running for president and not wanting to appear week or indecisive decided he had to respond. >> renewed hostile actions have today required me to take action and reply.

>> i thought it was time to blow the hell out of north vietnam and all the restrictions that we were put on while i was there was off. and i says, it's about time. >> oliver: of course, they weren't off? >> well. >> and the air group commander walked into the ready room and he said, we're going. this is a go. >> oliver: 26-year-old lieutenant everett alvarez was stationed aboard the uss constellation on the gulf of tonken. pilots in the uss tie conned row ga were given the sament of carrying out lb j's order. fly his jet 350 miles to bomb the north vietnam naval base. >> i think the thing most on my mind was flying, this is real, this is war. we might even make the evening news. >> oliver: alvarez would indeed make the evening news.

after successfully hitting his target headed back to the constellation when his plane was hit by enemy fire. >> and transferred to the other guys, i've been hit and i guess the wing must have come off because the plane started to do this and i couldn't control it. >> oliver: alvarez bailed out after being picked up by a north vietnamese fishing boat he was turned over to the enemy. he was the first pilot to be shot down over north vietnam. >> i would have to say we achieved our objective. i think we wiped out a number of the torpedo boats. >> oliver: any effort to interrogate you at all? >> there were two vietnamese officers, they both spoke english and i could only give my name, rank, number and date of birth. according to the geneva agreements, but that's for a prisoner of war. the united states has not declared war on us. we haven't declared war on you. >> oliver: after a week of grueling interrogations, alvarez was suddenly hustled

into a jeep and driven hours to hanoi. >> and the next thing i know, i'm entering this old big prison compound. and the old prison so i was the first occupant there and we later gave it the name the hanoi hilton. >> robert mcnamara and joint chiefs of staffs knew it was at least >> robert mcnamara and the joint chiefs of staff knew it was at least very likely that a second incident in the gulf not occur, but they were anxious to support the president in getting this resolution through congress and avoiding the debate on vietnam. >> oliver: if passed the gulf of tonken resolution would allow lbj to use force in southeast asia without declaring war, but first mcnamara would have to answer tough questions in closed door congressional hearings. >> mcnamara brings with him the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff general

wheeler and general wheeler and secretary mcnamara lie about the ambiguitys surrounding the second attack. >> oliver: later that day. mcnamara briefed lbj on the hearings. >> i think the hearings were satisfactory, just near unanimous support. >> oliver: congress overwhelmingly passed the resolution on 7 aing. it gave lflt bj the power to take, quote, all necessary measures to repel any armed attacks against the forces of the united states and to predict-- prevent further aggression, basically a blank check and it would be cashed in vietnam. >> when america bombs north vietnam, it isn't understood that the north vietnamese communists are going to respond by increasing infiltration into south vietnam. but the viet cong were growing larger, at the same time they're stealing the countryside out from under the government in the slow seepage of guerilla war fwaer.

>> oliver:? november of '64, lbj was elected president of the united states and in hanoi, lieutenant alvarez endured starvation at the hanoi hilton and managed to hang on to the belief he'd be coming home. >> somehow, i was convinced that someone was going to come along and open my cell and say, come on, you're going home. i mean, the fact that i would be left there just didn't even enter my mind. >> oliver: the first troops hit the beachch the sixties were all about freedom. ♪ and now in my sixties, they are again. grandpa, are we there yet? i have the freedom to do what i want... and go where i want. grandpa, come on! freedom is what i like about my medicare supplement insurance. i can see the doctor i want, where i want, anywhere in the country. now your sixties can be a time of freedom again... with aarp medicare supplement insurance plans... insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company.

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of conviction. and of our enduring covenant. >> oliver: when president johnson gave his 1965 inaugural address there were just over 20,000 american troops in vietnam and 400 had died there. both those numbers were about to rise dramatically. >> in february, eight americans were killed at plakou. lbj responded with operation flaming dart and bombed a north vietnamese army base. from his cell at hanoi hilton, alvarez knew it was escalating. >> i would look out my cell and the tray of food coming in, two trays and the other one would go this way and next day three trays and a week later four trays. >> this is a decision point for the president and the beginning of the rolling thunder bombing campaign against north vietnam. >> oliver: operation rolling thunder began on 2 march,

1965. the president and his advisors opened bombing would force the north to back down. the white house maintained strict control over target selection and that, in fear of a wider war with china or the soviets, muted the effectiveness of rolling thunder. >> it would be followed very closely by the introduction of marines initially under the auspices of defending bases, but ral, the thought from the very beginning was to conduct, quote, offensive killing operations. >> oliver: on 8 march, 3500 marines came ashore, thousands he way,re on t >> on 8 march, 3500 marines came ashore, thousands more were on the way, including ernie wallace and ed, they landed two months later on 7 may, with the 2nd battalion fourth marines. >> how are you, g.i. joe. >> the night before we made landing, we was listening to

hanoi hanna and how they were going to annihilate us on the beach. they knew we were coming. >> what did the guys in the squad say about this? >> hey, don't worry about it. you know? you're trained. we're going to take them out. >> we had an unopposed landing and we were met on the beach with all the locals. >> oliver: lots of kids? >> and everybody thought they was going to be great. >> oliver: hotter than blazes. >> hotter than blazes a 65 pound pack. 110 in the shade and a miserable day. >> oliver: may 65 also brought the first pause in rolling thunder. lbj hoped to negotiate ho chi minh simply ignored the overture and used the pause to send more troops south ton repair damages to the air defenses and the ho chi minh network. they were plenty busy.

>> did the dramatic increase in troops change your missions at all? drastically. we moved from the coast area up to the cambodian and lay ocean borders. >> we cannot be defeated by a force of arms. we will stand in vietnam. >> oliver: in july, president johnson announced that troop levels in vietnam would rise to 125,000. >> johnson still wants it avoid the debate on vietnam. so what johnson does is he understates the number of troops that general west moreland requests and he understates the amount of money it's going to take. >> oliver: the marines patrolled the air bases and initial contact was light, but the grunts needed to be wary of ambitious and booby trams. >> it was almost a cakewalk. >> oliver: did you guys have good maps? >> not good maps. they were calling out air and artillery. >> oliver: vietnam has a whole

bunch of nice things like leeches and flies as big as houses? >> oh, yeah, and you get into that fresh water stream at the side and time to wash up a little bit and you've got the leeches hanging on you. >> oliver: hanging on new places you don't want to talk about. >> correct. >> oliver: by mid august '65 far more than leeches to worry about. the location of 2000 viet cong and the marines were ordered to take them on. >> it was totally hush-hush. >> oliver: what's going through your head? >> what the hell are we into? >> oliver: operation starlight takes a bloody tooo

>> oliver: in august of '65, los angeles exploded.

the >> in august of '65, los angeles exploded. on the 18th, the day after the deadly watts riots ended the marines began the first major operation in vietnam. 0615, the navy began to pound the first viet cong regiment. >> intelligence had heard that the virs viet cong regiment was preparing to hit. >> oliver: the navy corpsman joined the marines just before operation starlight of the as a medical corpsman his job was to save lives. >> i don't think any of us slept that night. >> oliver: did you feel ready? >> i don't think you're sure until you go to the first wounded marine. >> oliver: operation starlight called for marine corps infib yus landing nine moils south of the airfield. another unit come from the north and the marines of 24 would conduct a salt west of the company. and ed martin and ed brumet

landed. >> and we started up to the sop of the ridge line and got to the top and started taking mortar fire and casualties right away. >> oliver: no cover? >> no cover at all. >> oliver: how many casual sults does third platoon take? >> we had four initially. >> oliver: how badly were they hurt? >> my first combat casualty was dead, looked like a piece of swiss cheese so i snapped my finger on the eyeball to see if there was a reaction and there wasn't so i closed his eyes. >> oliver: the company was under fire despite incoming, they had to move across open ground and assault hill 43. >> from where we handed landed and the open rice paddy all the way out 500 meters and then there is a hedge row and then to the left was a village and large open trench in between. >> oliver: not a lot of cover? >> not a whole lot of cover to get into. as we were getting close to

hill 43, i was the last man back and i looked down the trench line and the trench line was full of the bad guys coming behind the platoon. i opened up down the trench and ran out of ammo and i ran across the rice paddy to catch up with the rest of the platoon. >> oliver: if you hadn't done what you did, the lead element of hotel company would have been annihilated. >> they would have been behind us, correct. later, i think they had a body count of 25. >> shortly after noon you come to the village and now you take real casualties. >> they opened up on us, machine guns, small arms, 60 millimeter mortar and several guys got hit right away. >> despite the incoming fire, doc martin went to work on the wounded. >> every one of the guys were hit, all the young marines, 17, 18 year olds. everyone said go get jc. >> and the lance corporal in the middle of it.

>> oliver: tell me what martin did. >> he raced across there with very little cover. >> and said to hell with it, and dove up and ran out to this marine, ban gajed his leg the best i could, stopped the bleeding the best i could. >> and drug the corporal down. >> jc clark was his name. >> oliver: lance corporal jc clark died six months later in the hospital and operation starlight ended the same day. 44 other marines made the ultimate sacrifice and the enemy was far more bloody over 600 viet cong with also dead. >> i walked out, i was covered with blood and i got sick and the battalion commander came up and he says are you okay, marine? and i said i'm not a marine i'm a corpsman. he says today you're a marine. >> oliver: more on the road to war inx>÷?÷?ó

>> oliver: after star light there would be many more battles hamburger hill, caisson. broadcast to the world it was the first living room war. before the end it would drive lbj from office, divide the nation and scar yet another .residency .wanted to end this war >> in 1973 the last combat troops left vietnam.

that friday everett alvarez was released. he wrote the book chained eagle. south vietnam fell to the vietnamese in 1945. hoech men wouldn't see the victory he died in 1969. billy wa retired his total time 7 and a half years. he wrote about life as a war year in his book "hunting the jack cal." >> we would may man how stupid could we have been we would have ended that thing so easily. you know it's true. >> oliver: ernie wallace received the cross for heroism he and ed brumet would return for second tours in vietnam. ed martin received the bronze star after star light and left the navy in 1968. >> a lot of men died and wounded we didn't get the support we

needed to do the job we would have done over there. >> oliver: in the early days when it was only advisors vietnam became america's longest s military engagement and the only conflict where we won all of the battles but still lost the war. years after it was over robert mcnamara claimed in december of 65 he told president johnson america couldn't win the war militarily. that didn't stop vietnam from dragging on for almost 10 more years. vietnam some say have to be seen in the broadest contest of the cold war. for those of us who fought in the mountains stinking rice patys and dense juggles this war was anything but cold. errors in wa washington. for those of us who fought there's something more important than assessing blame honoring the 3 million that served in out east a southeast asia and more than 50,000 of us who d