hanoi's old town is a bustling place after nightfall. this is where vietnam's new middle class likes to go out. the restaurants, cafÉs and shops are always busy, and the narrow streets are teeming with thousands of mopeds. this morning, 35-year-old pham hong dung is visiting his father and his uncle, who live in a run-down building in one of the old town's back streets. he himself was born here, and has only just moved out. it had got too cramped -- these 16 rooms are shared by 50 people. pham hong dung's family own two thirds of the house -- the other six rooms are state-owned. they were confiscated by the communists over 50 years ago. but life in the house is still very communal. it's like a village, says pham hong dung. these days, he works in a bank. he has fond memories of the house he grew up in. i still remember people waking up and saying hello and exchanging the news of the day. it was quite close. >> the old town is a jumble of busy roads, winding lanes and rickety houses. it survived the vietnam war largely intact, and poverty

the americans really believed that it might all end peacefully in saigon if we could just give an hanoiwe thought they wanted instead of a government we wanted. as usual in southeast asia, we were wrong, but we hung on in saigon perhaps too long because it was so hard to believe that the day might finally come when the south vietnamese-- our allies, our wards, our south vietnamese-- would simply order us to pack up and get out. richard threlkeld, cbs news, aboard the u.s.s. "hancock." >> pelley: dick was 74. he's survived by his wife, the former cbs news correspondent betsy aron, two children, and two grandchildren. dick taught a generation of cbs news correspondents how to write. none of us did as well. in our final story of this week a beautiful mind. a teenager makes a discovery that could save lives. "on the road" with steve hartman is next. what's going on? we ordered a gift online and we really need to do something with it... i'm just not sure what... what is it? oh just return it. returning gifts is easier than ever with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service. if i

this is hanoi, vietnam, and this is my second visit you see the girl on the left, she looks a little different than you expect. she was contaminated by agent orange, and so she is having developmental problems, as you can see. and america dropped hundreds of millions of tons of this stuff on the people of vietnam. mainly in the center of the country. this is the north. not a lot of ordinance or chem halls dropped on the people in the north, people fearing china or russia would formally weigh into the vietnam war. so they basically kept dropping bombs away from there, until the christmas bombings in 1972 when nixon and kiss skin jerry basically bombed hanoi the negotiating table in the north of vietnam they have the rainbow village, started by an american war veteran who came back and saw what america had done and he felt bad. so he started an organization where people contaminated by agent orange and they're offspring -- we're now four generations into this -- can get treatment. so a meeting was set up for me. i met the director, gave him a cash donation, and i said can i walk around

i don't think that it was going to help me get interviews with morning to hanoi or any other people that turned me down in there but i do have news for you because you say people want socialism on the way down and i think that people think that is what this occupy movement it capsulated and i want to tell you what discussion i had with the occupy protester out there at the igloos who in fact is an american ex-pat dimitri guess what his concern was one that he's really been studying debt currency the problem with the fact that debt has to be created in order to issue money i said hey you said a lot like an austrian he said you know i've been listening to a lot of they've been coming through zurich where he lives quite frequently so i think about something important because we talk about really what the ideas are in the occupy movement and you know it's not a giant massive call for socialism he probably watched the show lauren just wanted to impress or didn't tell you that's why he said oscar is a code word. so i went out we got to go we are a lot about we got to go lauren sawyer stay warm

implemented because i frankly don't think whatever our intentions are and i would say to defend burma and hanoi for that matter so i see no point in producing degradation by using words or engaging in a symbolic actions with the intentions were not the intention is to serve our national interest because the fact of the matter is the united states is not going to have the power to be the arbiter in the far east the way it could be and was in europe. we can be a player but we have to be a player much more sophisticated like great britain and europe in the 19th century and that is what i argue in my book. >> host: you think u.s. administrations could clarify better what they will or would not do in asia in terms of actions that might be taken outside of the already binding relations that we have with japan. >> guest: we could have about our objectives and not stampede in terms of theorizing about particular mostly military strategies and this sort and i think we probably will have to ask ourselves how long will the chinese feel comfortable with american overflights right on the edge of their terri

whatever intentions are that they would ever get engaged in a ground war with china to defend irma or hanoi for that matter. and so, i see no point in producing mutual aggravation by using words or engaging in symbolic actions that convey wrong intentions or not intentions that would really serve our national interest because the fact of the matter is the united states is not going to have the power to be the assertive -- in the far east that way that it could be and was in your. we can be a player but we have to be a player much more sophisticated, it's more like great britain and europe in the 19th century and that is what i argue in my book. >> host: and do you think that the u.s. administration's could clarify better what they will or would not do in asia in terms of actions that might be taken outside of the already binding treaty relation we have with japan? >> guest: i think perhaps a clear definition of our strategic objectives should not be stampeded in haste and theorizing about particularly military strategies of -- and i think we probably will have to ask ourselves for how long

we would ever get engaged in the ground war with china and say to the defense of burma, myanmar or hanoi for that matter. so i see no point in producing the mutual aggravation by using words or engaging in a symbolic actions that would convey wrong intentions or not the intentions the would serve the our national interest because the effect of the matter is the united states is not going to have the power to be the assertive arbiter of the far east the way it could be and was in europe. we have to be a player what we have to be a player much more sophisticated much more like great britain and terrapin the 19th century, and that is what i argue in my book. >> host: and you think that the u.s. administration's clarified what they will or would not do in asia in terms of actions that might be taken out side of the already binding treaty relations that we have with japan. >> guest: we could have perhaps a clear definition of the of objectives and not be stampeded into the theorizing about the particular mostly military strategies, offshore hedging and stuff of this sort. and i think we proba

against south vietnam and north north vietnam -- at least where nobody was looking -- the area around hanoi was somewhat spared because there were a lot of eyes there, foreign embassies. but the south, northern part of vietnam was turned into a moonscape, south vietnam itself may never recover. the bombing extended to northern laos which had nothing to do with the war in vietnam, mainly because it was a lot of air force planes were idle during bombing. here they virtually destroyed what amounted to a virtually stone age society, primitive society in northern laos littered with unexploded ordnance, people still dying. people were literally living in caves for several years trying to survive. i interviewed a lot of them back around 1970. then it expanded to cambodia which was actually the most intense bombing in history following henry kissinger's immortal phrase, "anything that flies against anything that moves." those were the orders handed down by kissinger from his boss to the air force and the bombing, a brief period just a couple of years, we now know reached the level of old allied bom

this is hanoy, vietnam. my second visit. you see the girl on the left looking different than you'd expect. she was contaminated by agent orange, and so she's having developmental problems as you can see. americans drops this stuff on the people of vietnam, and i was told mainly in the center of the country. this is, of course, the north. .. where people contaminated by agent orange and their offspring, because there are now for generations into this, can come and get treatment so i found out about the place and the meeting was set up for me. i met the director and gave him a cash donation i said may i walk around and take some photos? he gave me a teacher and assign me and he said you can walk around with her. i went from classroom to classroom and through the different western questions children have different degrees of problems and challenges. in the first classroom, the kids are up against it. this is the last classroom where people have motor skills and they are making flowers. if you have seen the background is a paper

to the end the americans really believed it might all end peacefully in sig onif we could just give hanoin southeast asia we were wrong. when there are not enough policemen to go around.... >> osgood: he returned home with distinctive style. >> questions about the sla, about patty hurst. >> the whole presidential primary madness. >> reporter: dick always had just the right words to put it all in context. >> the death penalty is really no penalty to gary gilmore. the state of utah is simply granting his death wish by executing him. >> this is the cbs morning news with richard threlkeld in new york. >> osgood: beginning in 1977... he co-anchored our morning news broadcast. all in all good preparation for the job he started for sunday morning in early 1979. >> we're on the u.s. side of the rio grande. the skyline of atlanta is on this.... >> reporter: reporting our cover story, nearly every cover story every week. >> progress is not inevitable and the melting pot doesn't always melt very well. >> osgood: as you recall for our 25th anniversary broadcast back in 2004.... >> we decided because

i have been to miami, little havana and hanoi many interactions with the cuban community over the years -- havana, and had many interactions with the cuban community over the years. my grandfather was born in italy. he came right after world war i, when mussolini came into power. it is a very familiar tale. miscellany came into power, and after three -- mussolini came into power and after three years, he figured out what mussolini was about, and he was not about that. he left fascism. so he came here. he ended up working five years until he earned his citizenship and had the money to bring the rest of the family over. he worked a couple of years in the auto factories in detroit. after he lost his job there, he ended up in the coal fields in pennsylvania. he worked in a company town. he was one of the guys who started the union because there were no miners' unions. he started a union so that they would not get paid with coupons. they would get paid with cash. they got paid with stamps. they had to shop in the stores the company town. they had to live in the house as the company provided.

ultimately, john and i found our way back to vietnam together and i'll never forget standing in the hanoi hilton, the prison where he was held for a period of time, standing in a very self that he had been imprisoned in alone, just the two of us as he described to me some of what had happened. at that moment, i felt to myself and i thought about it afterwards -- if we two can get over our feelings about the war, if we can get or the difference of an arizona republican and a massachusetts democrat, we can come together to do what we are doing here and find common ground -- than all the rest of these things should be easy they are in the greater interest of our country. when ben franklin walked down the steps of constitution hall, a woman walked up to him and said that after they had finished their work designing our nation, she said what we have? a monarchy or a republican? he looked at her a he said""a republi if you can keep it. that is the work we face today and i am very, very proud to be engaged in that work with john mccain and with others in the senate, people want to reach across a

hundreds of thousands of civilians dead, he said it was come and ago, a means of communication with hanoi. and what happened on 9/11 was that those means of communication were brought home to us. 9/11 for me was one of the great tragedies, historical tragedies, of our country. because the only way to fight terrorism, and terrorism has been with us since it was written about, is to isolate terrorists and terrorist groups within their own societies. and you do that by garnering empathy of those people. in those countries where terrorist groups operate. and i covered al qaeda for the new york times based in paris after 9/11, and we had garnered the empathy, not only of the world but the muslim world. muslims were appalled at what had been done in the name of their religion. you had senior islamic clerics in cairo announcing 9/11 as a crime against humanity, which it was. and then going on to denounce osama bin laden as a fraud. somebody with no theological training or theological religious legitimacy and, therefore, no right to issue $5. and if we have the courage -- fought off. if we had bu

i have been to miami, little havana and hanoi many interactions with the cuban community over the yearshavana, and had many interactions with the cuban community over the years. my grandfather was born in italy. he came right after world war i, when mussolini came into power. it is a very familiar tale. miscellany came into power, and after three -- mussolini came into power and after three years, he figured out what mussolini was about, and he was not about that. so he came here. he ended up working five years until he earned his citizenship and had the money to bring the rest of the family over. he worked a couple of years in the auto factories in detroit. after he lost his job there, he ended up in the coal fields in pennsylvania. he worked in a company town. he was one of the guys who started the union because there were no miners' unions. he started a union so that they would not get paid with coupons. they would get paid with cash. they had to shop in the stores the company town. they had to live in the house as the company provided. so, he was not a republican, he was a fighter.