when i was the chief and hong kong for adc, bernie kalb was the bureau chief with cbs, and then in 1971 when i came back here to the united states as a diplomatic correspondent i was blessed to have margin as a competitor. as many of you in this room know, our friends tended to become people who have been our competitors because by definition we don't travel with others from our core network or why your service or newspaper. we only travel with competitors. but i'm especially grateful to have had the kalb brothers as competitors coming and we are going to begin before we get to marvin and depo with just a few words or i must say it was a tactical mistake to put a microphone and bernie kalb's hand. [laughter] once it is there it is going to be difficult to again. but -- [laughter] >> do i have a half-hour? >> no. [laughter] >> would you set the scene by reminding people in the audience who may not be old enough to remember how did we get so intricately involved in vietnam in the first place? >> i must begin by saying this is not a very heavy. i've got my dear brother, my niece and my fri

have one of the kalb brothers as a competentper -- when i was bureau chief in hong kong for abc bernie kalb was bureau chief for cbs and then in 1971 when i came back here to the united states as diplomatic correspondent i was blessed to have marvin as a competitor. our friends tendon to be people who are who are have become our competito competitors. we only travel with competitors but i'm especially grateful to have the kalb brothers as competitors i want to get a few words although i must say i was kind of nervous it was tactical mistake to put a microphone in bernie kalb's hand. [laughter] >> once it is there it's going to be difficult to extract it again. but bernie -- >> do i have a half hour -- >> no. would you set the scene by reminding the many people in the audience here who may not be old enough, how did we get so intriparticularly involved in the first place? >> let me begin by saying for me this is a night of very heavy quelling, i got my dear brother, my dear friend koppel and my niece and writing a book to the perceptions, the analysis into the book and all together i'd like