decision point for the president and the beginning of the rolling thunder bombing campaign against north vietnam 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? >

memoirs, which i intend to do, i would have no hesitancy in saying i urged him to do the bombing on north vietnam in 1969. i thought he should have vetoed this bill and he didn't do it. i think you can do that and be respectful and say, you know, the president of the united states, you serve him loyally, but you got a right to write your memoirs and say where you stood on all these issues. after the presidency is over. >> pat, why didn't you write your nixon memoir in the '70s when it was hot? if you do a nixon memoir, it will come out over 40 years later, after the president is dead. it seems there's a big difference between that and what cheney is doing. >> you're right, but, look, i was not 68 years old. i was 34, 35 when i left the administration. cheney, let's face it, he's had a heart condition. he's got a tremendous reputation in history as the most controversial vice president, most powerful, influential. i almost think, lawrence, he's got an obligation to lay out why he did what he did. he's been out front on the torture issue as they call it. he confronted the president of the united st

had, "this passport is not valid for travel to the following countries -- china, north korea, north vietnama." in 1958, before the eisenhower proclamation, rockwell kent was denied a passport. he took his case to the supreme court, refusing to sign an affidavit saying he was not a communist, and the supreme court ruled in can verses dullest the right to travel is a fundamental right guaranteed by the constitution and that you and i have a vote to go anywhere we want, anytime. in reaction to that decision, the government, and this is both democrats and republicans -- they pulled out an obscure 1917 law called the trading with the enemy act. fine. you can go to cuba, but you cannot spend a dime unless we license you. asset control licenses people to go to cuba if they fit in certain categories. this is a moving target, very difficult to keep track of who can be licensed to go there. nonetheless, the travel ban continues until today. the minute you get in a cuban taxi at the airport and have begun to take you to your hotel, you have violated the trading with the enemy act. if you register in a

your outlook on nonviolence but the world around you has changed and i think to vietnam, you know, you went to the northod to the prisoners, and you tried to preach your message of peace, and a lot of the people who were angry with you then i bet are fans today. is that what you found? >> i found really interesting responses, a lot of them from people who were in the military then, a couple of them have said, boy, did i hate you then, and boy was i wrong. ♪ but i've heard of a city called heaven ♪ >> how would you describe this point in your career? >> oh, it's probably the happiest point, because i've overcome lots and lots of things, and i've reached a point where it's a low maintenance situation. it takes a lot of work to keep singing. i have fantastic musicians. >> one of the musicians is your son? >> yes. >> did he naturally gravitate into music or did you pull him along? >> no, i never pulled him any which way or another and he went right smack into african drumming. ♪ >> is there any song in your set that makes you personally nostalgic? >> nostalgic's never been my gig, you know. i mean, i prefer

pepperidge if he hadn't done that i would still be in hanoi because the north vietnamese would have gone down and crashed south vietnam in 72 with no peace agreement and i would be over there so that his wife replete, one of my favorite guy is was a stalwart. snuffy smith, profiles in courage when he went south with the bosnia, scott o'grady had been shot down in an f-16 air force pilot. anyway, he came down and the middle of bosnia and cnn started telling the world where he was showing maps of this year he is and on the ground running trying to invade and the bad guys watch cnn like everybody else trying to pick this guy up. snuffy is that admiral and carrier. the marines are ready to go with rescue the word from washington so we want to go at night, it's safer to go at night. no word from washington. on his own, snuffy launched the force to get this guy. two of the chopper's got on the way back. [laughter] to of the chopper's got hit on the way back if one of them had gone down snuffy would have gotten home by the neck until dead yet he had the courage to do that because at washington they are sitting there looking

. >> as the vietnam war's death toll rose and protestors took to the streets, bobby found his voice. >> you do nothing sitting down with the northtnamese. >> even though he wanted to reclaim the white house, bobby wasn't ready to take on the president who was expanding the war, a war his brother had backed. >> he was quite resolute he wasn't going to run. it became clear we couldn't go through another four years of the johnson presidency. >> part of him said you don't take on something unless you can win. part of him said you have to do what's right. >> while bobby anguished, another anti-war candidate stepped up, minnesota senator eugene mccarthy. in march 1968, mccarthy, a virtual unknown, proved johnson's clear vulnerability, losing the new hampshire primary to the president by a handful of votes. a few days later, bobby was in, announcing in the same senate chamber his brother had. >> i do not run for the presidency merely to oppose any man, but to propose new policies. >> many people saw bobby's announcement as naked political calculation. >> you opportunist. you let mccarthy pave the way and followed in his wake, even if i

. >> and as the vietnam war death toll rose, and protesters took to the streets, bobby found his voice. >> you gain nothing by sitting down with a northn resolve this conflict, and i'm in favor of doing this. >> but even though he wanted to redlam the white house, bobby wasn't ready to take on the president who was expanding the war, a war his brother had backed. >> he was quite frazzled that he wasn't going to win. but it became clear that we couldn't go through another four years of the johnson presidency. >> part of him said you don't undertake something unless you think you can win. part of him said you have to do what's right. >> while bobby anguished, another anti-war candidate stepped up. minnesota senator eugene mccarthy. in 1968, mccarthy, a virtual unknown, losing to the president by a handful of votes. a few days later, bobby was in, announcing in the same senate chamber his brother had. >> i do not run for the presidency merely to oppose any man, but to propose new policy. >> many people saw bobbie's announcement as naked political calculation. >> the opportunist. you waited until you say that lynn don was really vulnerabl

north carolina. cathy on the republican line. caller: i basically have a statement. i gave the three brothers to vietnam and i'm a mother now. marine in iraq and i have a soldier in afghanistan. kudos to you for being there and watching them do their day to day job and letting america know just what they are going through. my family would have not made a different decision. they are volunteers, like you said, proud volunteers and we are a proud american families and they, like we are, are in it for the long run. god bless you. host: closing comments, what you want americans to know about this from your learning's on the ground? guest: it is a hard war and it is going to take perseverance. our troops have that perseverance but there is no easy short cut in this one because of the afghan government did not do a good job in picking of the way they should have over the last five years to six years. now what we have to do is we just have to stay there with them, develop their security forces and then back us out and that their security forces picked up the burden. host: what are you going to do with all of this video you shot whi

in both vietnam and afghanistan these are both countries that had defeated a european powerhouse over a ten-year gorilla war. that then resulted in basically a northouth civil war. they both are countries that have an uncontrollable border where the insurgents or the gorillas are taking rv uge in a neighboring country. in both instances i think that we misread the united states that is the actual enemy that we are fighting. in vietnam we thought the vote congress were primarily communist whence they were nationalists trying to reunit the country. i think in afghanistan we view the taliban as secular insurgents when i think they are jihadists. i think they are what eric -- i forget his last name, the true believer in the 1950s when he wrote "the true believe" i think these are true believes. and i think it is basically they are insurgents wrapped in the narrative of a jihad and that is a very different enemy than we think we are facing. >> warner: kim kagan does that parallel or potential parallel offer a cautionally -- cautionary note about the prospect of steadily increasing forces. i mean the additional u.s. forces president obama ordered there

vietnam fell in july 1959. that was the year ho and the north vietnamese communist party decided exclusively to wage a military campaign to unify the north and the south and declare that the u.s. was now the colonial occupiers and the enemy just as they considered the french to be before. that was another incident where it seems things converged at the end of this decade. host: you said the press initially called an asset astronaut's space men -- called the astronauts spaceman. guest: there were the argonauts. it is so mundane now. back then it was an adventure. people are excited about it. when people to about 1959 when we landed on the moon. nasa made an agency that had equal access to military spare parts and electronics. iand mercury. it was the year when the first rocket breaks free of the earth's gravitational pull. then it starts to revolve around the sun like a planet. that was a russian vehicle that in january 2, time magazine declared that this was a turning point in the multi-billion year history of the solar system. they used to write more hyperbolically than they do now. the planet had evolved to

vietnam fell in july 1959. that was the year ho and the north vietnamese communist party decided exclusively to wage a military campaign to unify the north and the south and declare that the u.s. was now the colonial occupiers and the enemy just as they considered the french to be before. that was another incident where it seems things converged at the end of this decade. host: you said the press initially called an asset astronaut's space men -- called the astronauts spaceman. guest: there were the argonauts. it is so mundane now. back then it was an adventure. people are excited about it. when people to about 1959 when we landed on the moon. nasa made an agency that had equal access to military spare parts and electronics. iand mercury. it was the year when the first rocket breaks free of the earth's gravitational pull. then it starts to revolve around the sun like a planet. that was a russian vehicle that in january 2, time magazine declared that this was a turning point in the multi-billion year history of the solar system. they used to write more hyperbolically than they do now. the planet had evolved to

vietnam fell in july 1959. that was the year ho and the north vietnamese communist party decided exclusively to wage a military campaign to unify the north and the south and declare that the u.s. was now the colonial occupiers and the enemy just as they considered the french to be before. that was another incident where it seems things converged at the end of this decade. host: you said the press initially called an asset astronaut's space men -- called the astronauts spaceman. guest: there were the argonauts. it is so mundane now. back then it was an adventure. people are excited about it. when people to about 1959 when we landed on the moon. nasa made an agency that had equal access to military spare parts and electronics. iand mercury. it was the year when the first rocket breaks free of the earth's gravitational pull. then it starts to revolve around the sun like a planet. that was a russian vehicle that in january 2, time magazine declared that this was a turning point in the multi-billion year history of the solar system. they used to write more hyperbolically than they do now. the planet had evolved to

vietnam prior. is this a version of that where nondiplomatic precedes diplomatic? >> those are all good points, dylan. we don't know the full back story. we don't know what north originally asked for. of course, these two young women are reporters for television network, current tv satellite and cable that was founded and the chairman is al gore. so the vice president, of course, has been laying we low on this because you don't want to say something that is going to endanger them. that's why i think we have to be careful with this conversation here. all of the indications are that president clinton's mission is going well. but how sure are we that the north koreans are going to do what they promised? so we have to be careful about that. i think, the government and president clinton's world will be freer what is going on here after the women are on a plane and i think you'll hear more from the white house when the plane is landed. >> clinton wouldn't go unless an indication ahead of time that his going would be successful. >> that's right. that is what was done in these weeks. they did believe that this would happen and that is why the white house gave its appr

before the comment that throughout the vietnam war, the united states government's position was consistent with regd to the people that were captured and kept by the north vietnamese, and that position was you take care of them, even though you're not a signatory to the geneva conventions, we expect you to treat them with dignity and respect and when the war is over, you will return them to us. united states government, democratic and republican, never said when do they get a lawyer, when do they get a trial, how can you hold them, this isn't fair. that was never an issue. and we never heard anybody, seven or eight years ago, talking about that, and educating our public, that that's what the standard should be, and not domestic criminal law. >> general, you've said that these procedures as we've drafted them exceed the procedures at the hague in terms of protections for people. you've also indicated that you have a couple of suggestions you've made relative to our language. other than those two suggestis, do youle this is the right direction for us to go as we've drafted it. >> reporter: yes, senator, i do. >> admiral hutson, let me put the question to