platoon, i would say at that particular time, the platoon i took over was a favorite of the battalion commander for some reason or another. what i heard is there a been some severe firefights and they had had -- they had been lucky enough not to lose too many, but they had a lot of young soldiers who it been wounded and returned to duty. officersmmissioned that were then serving were what they then called in those days instant bakes. they went through a crash course to become noncommissioned officers. , who for all6 intents and purposes was my platoon sergeant who had been in the army for two years. >> about the same amount of time as you have been. >> the differential was that he been in combat for six months. that was a big differential of course. 19, 18 inll young, some cases. ,hey had been hastily promoted i had one that was a battlefield .romotion from e4 to e5 i had a very young set of leaders and the previous lieutenant was on a first name basis with them and was one of the boys. i did not choose to operate that way. difficultytle bit of . i had some difficulty adjusting. they

and then you had lieutenant notert's platoon which was his platoon. command and had gotten other strangler vehicles laterunter attacked from in the morning but for the most part most were knocked out by two a.m. so after about hours of solid fighting, they were mostly inoperable. end of the day, they were able to recover and put back into service eight of them and if your armor guy will tell you, just because you're knocked doesn't mean you're dead and it really depends on how quickly you can get to that piece of how quickly your maintenance crews can bring that into of machinery back operating order. there were 13 that colonel baker said that were just what we like call total losses, catastrophic kills, that they could not recover but they were them.o recover a lot of that was a huge problem. this is something we were still learning. we didn't own the valley the day. the germans still owned the valley and as a result of that were maintenance crews able to go out and grab a lot of and putrk 4 panzers them back into service. at the end of the 23rd. the

my platoon leader told me, that lieutenant said go in and kill everyone. youou don't kill everyone, will be shot yourself. as i went in, he was always near me. i think i killed 18 to 20 people. >> were any of these people children? >> two. men --he rest were old and the rest were old men? >> young and old. >> did you see what else was going on? >> i saw lieutenant lemay had the massive ditch. there was about 50 people at a time. they would put two machine guns and put to people with automatic rifles. he was standing over them and said shoot them. he killed all 50 of them. then they would make another pile and put them in a ditch, they get another 50 and do them the same way. >> did you see any burning? >> yes, we burned everything. we put people in them and killed them and burn them. >> how did the guys look when they were doing this? >> it look like they were having a good time. >> did you see anyone not? >> i think just about everybody was busy. >> vietnamese are funny people, you cannot realize what they are thinking of. they seem to have no understandi

lambert's platoon which was really not his platoon. it was his command vehicle and he basically gotten some straggler vehicles from other units and counterattacked later on in the morning, but for the most part, most of those guys were knocked out probably by 7:00 in the morning so after about two hours of solid fighting they were mostly inoperable. by the end of the day, they were able to recover and put back into service eight of them, and if your armor anyways wouguys w you, just because you're knocked out doesn't mean you're dead and it depends how quickly you can get to that piece of machinery and how your maintenance crews can bring that piece of machinery back in operating order. there were 13 that colonel baker would like to call total losses and cat strofblg kills that they could not recover, but they were able to recover a lot of them and this is something that we're still learning. we didn't own the valley the next day. the germans still owned the valley and their maintenance crews are able to go out and grab a lot of those

and my platoon leader, told me to shooter. and i said no, you shoot her. i don't want to shoot no lady. he said i'm giving you a direct order to shoot, if you don't, you'll be shot yourself. i shot her about five or six times. and there was a little 3 month old baby in her arms. i thought it was her gun. it just kind of cracked me up. >> was the baby dead. >> yes. >> the bullets had gone through her? >> yes. >> what happened after that? >> after that, we had prisoners, they told us to guard us. >> let's kill them. >> i'm a platoon leader, i'm turning my back. this guy had a grenade launcher. he grabbed my liefl, and just went to the heads of everyone and put it between their eyes and pulled the trigger. >> and from there it sort of grew? >> yeah, just grew on. well, my platoon leader told me, my officer, lieutenant said well, go in and kill everyone. if you don't kill them, i'm going to watch you out there, if you don't kill everyone, then you're going to be shot yourself. so as i went in, he was always near me anyway. so i think i killed about 18 or 20 pe

you had lieutenant minor's platoon when was really the only platoon in a company anyway, and then you had lieutenant lambert's platoon and it was his command vehicle and he had basically gotten some straggler vehicles from other units and counterattacked later on in the morning. but for the most part, most of those guys were knocked out probably by like 7:00 in the morning. so after about two hours of solid fighting, they were mostly inoperable. now, by the end of the day, they were able to recover and put back into service eight of them and your armor guys will tell you, just because you're knocked out, doesn't mean you're dead and it really depends on how quickly you can get to that piece of machinery and how quickly your maintenance crews can get that piece of machinery back into operating order. there were 13 that colonel baker said that were just what we like to call total losses, catastrophic kills, that they could not recover but that was a huge problem. this is something we were still learning. we didn't own the valley the next day. the germans still owned the valley, and as a

i took the nearest platoon, i told them lead with tanks. they were missing a tank so they got another tank. they went down the hill, followed by a platoon. i was not going to lead it from a tank. got down to the bottom of the hill and suddenly, from the woodline, there were guys alive with rpgs. the firefight ensued. ning their nets thinking they were talking on their intercom. they were talking on their troop net. essentially, i lost command of my troop because i was getting nothing but talk from other people. i kept saying, get off. i wanted to make sure everyone was pointed in the right direction. i could see where the fire was coming from. i jumped off my vehicle with a m16 filled with tracers. my platoon leaders and i had this deal where if i cannot communicate with you and you see someone firing nothing but tracers, that is me. should that way. i jumped off and when i was running over to get to a position where i could start shooting, my rifle got knocked out of my hand. i said, what the heck was that? i do not remember dropping my ri

fire ray's tank platoon narrowed down a trail. stories return to the scene in the kall river gorge. what all comes down this forest path? >> well, initially only myself. and then so i started down the trail and i suppose i had gone 100, 150 yards when my tank struck a mine and it blew the track off and that blocked the trail. >> artillery hit that area. one of his nco's were killed. tanks were damaged. the tanks would go a matter of a few meters on this slippery, muddy slope. >> what's this track look like at that point? >> it's a mess. >> fog, mist, rain. artillery fire. they couldn't see anything. they didn't know how bad the trail was. >> we were being outgunned and outshot. >> and what are you thinking? >> what the hell am i doing here? >> ray flag's platoon of sherman tanks has to fight their way down this narrow forest trail and things go downhill from there. stay with us. financial news. >> deep inside the for bidding forest a horrific battle was raging. 4 november, ray and the 707

of calley's platoon. he was charged with aggravated assault times two, premeditated murder of not fewer than 100 vietnamese and my lai, and premeditated murder of an adult female and a male child. a charge of failure to obey a lawful order as well was -- excuse me -- a charge of failure to obey a lawful order was inexplicably dropped before trial. the case was defended by f. lee bailey, at the time a very prominent defense counsel. medina was not charged with making a false official statement, ucmj article 57 or with dereliction of duty or with disobedience of a lawful order to report a law crime or with a felony. all seemingly viable charges. instead, he was charged as a principal to murder, article 77, requiring for conviction as an aider or abetter that the accused shared the criminal intent of the perpetrator. proving specific intent is always a challenge. proving it to a co-actor once removed from the alleged principal actor is a very high bar for a prosecutor. it was a very strange charge to bring.

the platoon entered the village. and it's callie who is the trigger, who is the metamorphosis that stops the guarding of the civilians and begins their killing. there were some soldiers in the platoon who refused to follow his orders to execute the villagers, to kill them. but most did. so yes, callie was leading. he was recognized as the man in charge. and that's why my lai happened. callie had said we're not doing anything other than safeguarding these civilians and we'll take them and move them to another location, i don't believe we would be sitting here today. it would have never happened. let me go and make one more comment about the trials. after the second enlisted soldier was acquitted at trial and the defense was i was following orders, the army pretty much concluded that with the draftee army as it then existed, it was very unlikely to get a conviction of a junior enlisted soldier who raised the defense of superior orders. and that's probably true, i think, maybe the cases should have been tried anyway, bu

several days, got to meet the platoon. that's what i call the five lieutenants, the four platoon leaders and the f.o. we developed a pretty good bond over time as our proficiency and our working together as a team emerged. and you really became very dependent on one another, very confident in each other's abilities. and we set up many an ambush. liftst know how many air where we lifted out an then n ond into another locatio assaultsically an air operation. we would be out there a couple of days, defending the helicopters, load up anmove to another area. be landing zones would prepped with artillery to neutralize them so when we came in on the helicopters, we stood safely. of getting off as the f.o. i was responsible for most of that artillery coordination and support going in. so i did a lot of flying and artillery adjustment from the air in preparation for some of these raids. and then we go in. m.v.a. as ane enemy? >> first of all, they were highly skilled. they were good. i used to refer to them as being very elusive. w

my platoon was the first plat oop, and they assigned second platoon to go across the bridge first. the north vietnamese army had a chance to set up machine-guns on the other side of the bridge and so as they take off. we were trying to lay fire form from the side of the bridge. but when they let them get about halfway across, they opened up on them. that bridge is about 450 yards and it's not app rise bridge, it's more flat. it's an old steel bridge and they wounded a lot of marines. we were told go pick them up. so that's when we start run, and you are running down that bridge on that road, and it's not a wide bridge and you are looking at each steel beam and as you go by the beam you look at the next one because you know pretty soon they are going to open up on you. one good thing that happened lester thole, a corporal in the other platoon managed to get up with sam hand grenades and throw into the machine-gun pit and took it out. we were able to bring the wounded back and get them back into the matt v compound where they could be triaged and tried to be taken care of. after we z

. >> how many casualties does 3rd platoon take? four initially. >> how badly were they hit? >> my first combat casualty was dead. looked like a piece of swiss cheese. and so i stuck my finger on his eyeball to see if there was reaction, and there wasn't. so i closed his eyes. >> south of echo company, ernie wallace and hotel company were under fire, despite the incoming, they had to move across open ground and assault hill 43. >> from where we landed, an open rice paddy all the way out 400 to 500 meters. then there is a hedge row. then to the left was a village. and a large open trench in between. >> not a lot of cover. >> not a whole lot of cover to get into. as we were getting close to the l-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, ran out of ammo, and i ran across the rice paddy to catch up to the rest. >> if you hadn't done what you did, the lead element of hotel company would have been annihilated. >> the

one of the platoon commanders, we were out on patrol. i had been in the country for a couple of weeks and we had been traveling all day. we stopped for a few minutes to get our breath. i spotted this tree trunk. i said i thought that was a nice place to sit. andnt over and sat down started jerking my hot water. he came over and said marine, did you check that? i said no or. -- sir. he pointed his finger at me and said son, you will die over here. that what me up and helped to get me through. from that day on, i was really into and what was going on around me. about a week or so later, he was taken out of the field because he'll had 28 days left in his tour in vietnam. this was the command post for the rest of his time. this is when operation buffalo on in the to -- demilitarized zone. he was aware of it, he was hearing what was going on. he knew we were in big trouble. left, they want to go home. he chose to get together a rescue crew. he cannot to our rescue. rescue us he did. otherwise, we probably would have been annihilated. most of

the first platoon i stood in front of was the second platoon lima company, third battalion, fourth marines. they had just had a mutiny two weeks before i got there. of marines that refused to come out of the barracks in the morning. down to meet with my -- with my platoon sergeant, joe, we talked and i looked over at the marines in the platoon. ,bout 50% high school grads , average gtleaders of about 69. .hey were not stupid men they were just not educated. it was a different marine corps. we did not have any money. there was no air-conditioning. the gear was old. of korean war stuff. we went to the field every week and train hard and did the best we could. up, expectgrew nothing, get less. that way you are never disappointed. after going to camp, a lot of drug problems. -- camp pendleton, a lot of drug problems. we were not doing urinalysis. but even from them, there were a lot of good marines, tough kids, kids who grew up with nothing, but there were way too many who could not handle authority. they were not disciplined, and we were not a combat-ready force. general wilson said, i'm goin

♪ david: fresh out of west point, he led a platoon of 22 young soldiers.ow he has 134,000 employees at a company worth $350 billion, johnson & johnson. ceo alex gorsky took the helm when the iconic image of johnson & johnson was tarnished and made changes to get the company on track while making the biggest acquisition in the company's history and managing the transition to obamacare. after donald trump was elected president, he helped to represent a growing health care industry that already accounts for over 17% of the u.s. economy, and he is the first to say his industry has to change. we sat down with alex gorsky for an extended conversation. alex gorsky, chairman and ceo of johnson & johnson, welcome to "bloomberg big decisions." good to have you. alex: it is great to be here. david: i want to take you back. right now you run a big company, 134,000 employees. fresh out of west point, a platoon, 22 young men dependent upon you, and frankly you were putting them sometimes in harm's way. how are you a different leader today than you were at 22? alex: hope

this isn't such a great issue of censorship but it but it is early on in my career when i sent the platoon script to get some pentagon help in philippines they wrote back that we had to really rethink vietnam having been there as a front line soldier of course that i objected to all their objections and not only that they put out an order not an order as much as a desist kind of memorandum to their commanders saying that the troops should not cooperate with this movie same thing happened to us on board the fourth of july so i was doing a t.v. pilot. and we were filming intel in northern california and it was written by gary devor we play these f.b.i. agents kind of thing and i get a knock on the door i've gone through hair and makeup i've memorized my my lines for that day and i get a knock on the door and it's the second or third day and there and the guy says well steven we've got these rewrites for you and i was like well wait a second i've already memorized my my lines like why the rewrites you know. and he said well we talk to you talk to the f.b.i. and they want to make these adjustm

♪ david: fresh out of west point, he led a platoon of 22 young soldiers.ow he has 134,000 employees at a company worth $350 billion, johnson & johnson. ceo alex gorsky took the helm when the iconic image of johnson & johnson was tarnished and made changes to get the company on track while making the biggest acquisition in the company's history and managing the transition to obamacare. after donald trump was elected president, he helped to represent a growing health care industry that already accounts for over 17% of the u.s. economy, and he is the first to say his industry has to change. we sat down with alex gorsky for an extended conversation. >> alex gorsky, chairman and ceo of johnson & johnson, welcome to "bloomberg big decisions." good to have you. alex: it is great to be here. david: i want to take you back. right now you run a big company, 134,000 employees. the quebec tidjane thiam 82, fresh out of west point, a platoon, 22 young men dependent upon you, and frankly you were putting them sometimes in harm's way. how are you a different leader today

was second platoon third battalion, fourth marines. they just had a mutiny two weeks before i got there. >> did you say mutiny? >> a mutiny. they had a group of marines who refused to come out of the barracks in the morning. i was told that, so when i went down to meet my platoon sergeant, sergeant now retired sergeant major -- and we met and we talked and i looked over the marines in the platoon, about 50% high school grads, three squad leaders, , sergeant bacon, sergeant douglas and corporal thomas, average gt of about 69. they were not stupid been. they just probably, they were not educated. but the marines were, it was a different marine corps. we didn't have any money. there was no air-conditioning. the gear was old. a lot of, you know, still korean war stuff. we went to the fuel every week and we trained hard and we did the best we could. we kind of grip expect nothing, yet less. that way you are never disappointed. then in the '80s, came back, you know, after going to camp pendleton, a lot of the discipline problems, a lot of dr

from zero one film which really blow me away and it's one of my favorite favorite movie of us was platoon you play the sergeant elias and it has one of the. most important dying scenes in in movie history so was it fully improvised store i'm not at all it was but it was a very simple action i mean run for your life you know i knew already explosions were i had no cruelty me i was in the middle of the jungle with many extras behind me i had to make my own explosions on my body and i knew where the explosions were so it was really a very simple action but it's an action that we can all relate to running for your life being chased by five hundred people shooting at you know you now picked up by . escorting actor oscar nomination for your role as poppy the motel manager in the projects what was the appeal of this project i knew we would be filming in the actual location where the story takes place so we'd also be. the story that we're telling is about a world that exists of basically the hidden homeless people living long term temporarily in this budget motel in the shadow of disneyland i've

and the real crux of the entire united states army is with the noncommissioned squad or platoon level. that is basically what i tried to get across to these people. and what a lot of them were then trying to learn were the basic individual techniques, but of course at darby, that is because that is what it was supposed to be like, it wasn't until the latter part that you began to form the platoons and so forth. whatever i could do, i tried to do that. the regular tactics and techniques you learned, we try to impart them upon these young soldiers. because all the instructors then were vietnam veterans. >> ok, how long did you stay at that fort? harry: i left the ranger department because they sent me to advanced officer basic school. >> also at benning? harry: yes, which was interesting because there is nothing being taught about vietnam, which when i went to the officer basic course, nothing was taught about vietnam. like i said, the only experience i had that prepared me for vietnam was ranger school, other than what i got to read in infantry magazine about some of the things there.

. >> the eyes of the allied command from eisenhower down to the platoon leader were on this dam. >> whenffensive resumes how do you get the word? >> i think about the 29th of january, we would clear the south side of our say leent to the ruhr river so we could turn north and go up and get the big dams. >> little did cam know he would see his father on the battlefield. >> it was a heavy snowstorm. we'd taken all the germans whites from the houses and make ourselves invisible in the snow. in the meantime we had an enormous amount of. those are my father's. a stick of enemy mortar started coming in. i just jumped in the ditch to protect myself. well someone i hadn't known was there next to me and he jumped in the ditch ahead of me. i landed on top of him. when we got up, it was my father. i said you're supposed to be back with the artillery. he said i'm up here checking to see how my artillery is doing. some newsman asked him how he liked firing artillery over his son and he said i don't like firing my artillery over anybody's son. >> true to his habits hitler forbayed withdrawing one foot.

calley's company -- calley had a platoon. there were three platoons that went in. they rounded up people and put them in a ditch. the other companies just went along. they just killed and raped and mutilated. it went on until everybody was either run away or killed. 400 and some odd people in that or 600 alone of the 500 people that lived there were murdered there come all by noon, 1:00. at one point, one helicopter pilot, a wonderful man named thompson, saw what was going on and actually landed his helicopter. he was a small combat -- had two gunners. he just landed his small helicopter, and he ordered his gunners to train their weapons on lieutenant calley and other americans. and calley was in the process of -- apparently going to throw hand grenades into a ditch where there were 10 or so vietnamese civilians. and he put his guns on calley and took the civilians, made a flt safy.ps and took them out, he, of course, was immediately in trouble for doing that. amy: that was seymour hersh on democracy now!. his reporting altered how many americans viewed the war in

topic of his new documentary hollywood d c i really hope you understand how impossible it was to make platoon i mean it was written in one nine hundred seventy six it was not made to eighty six i was turned down dozens of times it was very hurtful and to be rejected people would say it's a great script it did help my reputation as a writer but no one would make it because it was too depressing they said but i said what's depressing about the truth you've got a truth that should be in the movies but i mean that's a conflict that goes to the heart of hollywood when hollywood was never based on telling the truth behind the lie. how much. propaganda evolved from psychological warfare a phrase derived from nazi germany's. world war. twenty five on friday morning here in moscow you will continue and about how often are. other gun some is not so is not quite place is not a good country and. children are just the minister they live bunch of family loves. you best but that's just the physical. stuff the culture. of the culture the fish flesh with the familiar object of christmas. just the embrace from

is the platoon a highlight of course there are highlights we know that many visitors are especially interested in the house artists we have outstanding paintings by lionel finding out and wonderful painting by clay glee they'll be exhibited down here in this area near the end of the. for now the treasures are kept away from the. public safely guarded in a warehouse but i can already admire some of the objects. with these and why do you need gloves to handle the lamp first. yeah this is. one not so this one dates back to nine hundred twenty four it is by the internet looking around though it might look quite robust it was made by hand and water or and. it also seems that up here the glass has a crack. although reproductions of the lamp on sale in every design shop design these first prototypes are very fragile and. that. these figures look a bit more robust. doesn't hunt. these are puppets by about how trauma. to the would turn us workshop your environment i must inspire to create these completely new kinds of things and. i think we're going to take that out of a stick than that so what are the

i was a rifle team commander -- rifle platoon commander in a company commander. belief that i had was the young artists that were coming, my age and younger that were being trained and learned different ways of military leadership are strong and overtime, maybe in the formula of north and south korea along have we waited? someday korea will unite. i worked in europe as assistant secretary of defense and no one believed germany was going to unite as quickly as they did. you could have seen that same potential in vietnam. >> vietnam was united. it is a very different place today. >> there's no way you can wind back the clock. i started working with the inside vietnam in the vietnamese community here for many years. inside it not as i do here, sometimes i got mean trouble, the mantra from the communist on the cd american veteran is shake hands, makepeace. -- let'sshake the hand all move together in the future. host: that your conduct of vietnam on occasions, other physical remnants of the war? >> as i was first going back in the committee 1, 1992, drove the entire l

i was a rifle team commander -- rifle platoon commander in a company commander. belief that i had was the young artists that were coming, my age and younger that were being trained and learned different ways of military leadership are strong and overtime, maybe in the formula of north and south korea along have we waited? someday korea will unite. i worked in europe as assistant secretary of defense and no one believed germany was going to unite as quickly as they did. you could have seen that same potential in vietnam. >> vietnam was united. it is a very different place today. >> there's no way you can wind back the clock. i started working with the inside vietnam in the vietnamese community here for many years. inside it not as i do here, sometimes i got mean trouble, the mantra from the communist on the cd american veteran is shake hands, makepeace. -- let'sshake the hand all move together in the future. host: that your conduct of vietnam on occasions, other physical remnants of the war? >> as i was first going back in the committee 1, 1992, drove the entire l

it would be a complete dereliction of duty for me to take my platoon into any fight and not think of the worst-case scenario and the worst thing that can happen and are we prepared for it. i think they should be required reading to truly understand what the worst-case scenarios are and make sure we are actually prepared to address them. i don't think we are. >> if i could press you slightly further it's probably on the minds of a lot of people. the so-called tripwire theory. we have now each of those countries nato members and finally they put some boots on the ground. this is the tripwire and there are some issues with this. >> there are major issues with it. the first of which is simply that you only have a credible defense if you are willing to use it. it's the most fundamental comment and national security and we have proven over the past year that putin can walk all over us even right here at home and we won't do anything. just looking at the difference in the last couple of days to the american response versus the difference between the american response in the uk response to t

. ♪ david: fresh out of west point, he led a platoon of 22 young soldiers.oyees at a company were $350 billion, johnson & johnson. ceo alex gorsky took the home when the iconic image of johnson & johnson was tarnished and made changes to get the company on track while making the biggest acquisition and the company's history and managing the transition to obamacare. electednald trump was president, he helped to represent a growing health care industry

stone like to confront a gritty realities head on in his what for example in his vietnam war movie platoon and he started again with his latest documentary a hollywood d c he spoke to watts he's watching the whole piece about the difficulties he faced realizing his projects. i really hope you understand how impossible it was to make clear to and i mean it was written in one nine hundred seventy six it was not made to lady six i was turned down dozens of times it was very hurtful and to be rejected people would say it's a great script it did help my reputation as a writer but no one would make it because it was too depressing they said but i said what's depressing about the truth you've got a truth that should be in the movies but i mean that's a conflict that goes to the heart of hollywood i mean hollywood was never based on telling the truth behind the lie we must ask ourselves how much how small the pill of propaganda evolved from psychological warfare a phrase derived from nazi germany's. world feel more. international thanks for sharing your friday with us here on this channel we are b

it would be a dereliction of duty to take my platoon in to any fight and not to have thought of the worst case scenario. what's the worst thing that can happen and are we prepared for it? i think it should be required reading for all of our military planners to truly understand what the worst case scenarios are, and make sure that we are actually prepared to address them. i don't think that we are. >> well, if i could press you slightly further than this, and that is probably, you know, on the minds of a lot of people in the room, the so-called trip wire theory. we have now, a battalion in each of the countries. nato members, four countries, estonia, lithuania, latvia and poland and finally we put troops on the groubnd, this is the ide that this is a trip wire, putin will not cross it. i think there's issues with it what do you think? >> i think there's major issues with it. you only have a credible defense if you are willing to use it. one of the most fundamental concepts in national security strategy. we have proven over the past year that putin can walk all over us, even right here at