did you ever go back to dien bien phu? >> i never went back. i went back to vietnam in 21, but the group was not organized to go to dien bien phu, and i didn't -- i did want to go to dien bien phu because people had told me each time they decide to build a new house, they dig the soil, the ground, and you see bodies of those who gave their lives, and i couldn't support to see such things. >> hi. i really don't have a question, but i think i speak on behalf of some of the military spouses that are here with me that in light of your great courage if something should, god forbid, ever happen to any one of our husbands that somebody like you would always be there. [speaking french] >> thank you. [applause] and it was not only for the wounded because one day weather was very clear, and there was a parachute -- a drop of parachutes, and we went out to see them, to see dropping, and it was beautiful, you see? this white coming down the sky. and -- [inaudible] arrive on the ground close to me, and when he get up he say, ah, a woman. and his voice someth

interesting which i do talk about a bit in the book is the debate about what to do about vietnam after dien bien phu when the french lost the battle of dien bien phu and were driven out of vietnam. there were powerful forces in washington that thought the united states should intervene. we had already given some military aid to the french. they were asking for special forces and so forth. they were asking for people, for boots on the ground. and eisenhower had said, not yet, or no. but at the same time there's some evidence that eisenhower was seriously considering an intervention. well, we didn't have an intervention, and it was for several reasons. one is that the korean war had just been fought, and people were tired of war. a second was that when you look at the congressional debates -- and there were congressional debates about what to do about vietnam after dien bien phu -- you find congressmen standing up and saying the french are simply a colonialist power, and if we go in there, we'll be playing the french game. we shouldn't try to replace the french in ip doe china. that's -- indochina. th

congressional debates, and they were congressional debates about what to do about vietnam, after dien bien phu, you find congressman getting up and saying the french assembly a colonialist power, and if we go into we will be playing the french game. we shouldn't try to replace the french in indochina. that's not why we fought in world war ii, duty, the new old world empire. and that was -- nobody called of those people come in this because they said that. they said yes, that's right. we didn't have the war, then. we didn't have the war until 10 years later. and more to get the war 10 years later, 13, well, however many, 11, 12 years later, lyndon johnson had to cook up the gulf fiasco. which he himself said there's a statement, if i find i tell them about what johnson said after the u.s. destroy for allegedly fired on by north vietnamese pt boats in the tonkin gulf in 1964, johnson was asked about it later and said off-the-cuff but it was recorded, those boys did know what they were shooting at. the people, they must've been drunk or something, they did know what they were shooting out. becaus