there were several prisons around hanoi. his orders made it to all the pow camps and at the vietnamese one point, brought him in front cap, -- catl and who was the commander of the , prison camps came up to him , and said you have caused us a lot of trouble. criminals and camps miles away. know your orders. you have set us back two years. he said that he never received a finer compliment than that. jim stockdale and his leadership team there were a lot of senior officers there the north , vietnamese realized that these guys were causing trouble and they had to get rid of them. so they identified 11 pows most of whom are senior ranking navy commanders, and they needed to kick them out of the hanoi hilton. the other thing the book tells you is how to get kicked out of the p.o.w. camp. jim stockdale and jeremiah denton received the medal of honor which he accepted on , behalf of all the pows when he came home. jeremiah denton became a u.s. senator for the state of alabama and painlessly -- and quite famously, some of you might

i knew all about hanoi hilton.ver to me and he said, when we were in the compound they used to play hanoi hilton hannah. they would play american music to us to demoralize us, you know. and make us home sick and everything. but every time we heard that song it boosted our morale. ,[laughter] amd i thought, those godd french educated vietnamese commanders could probably not understand american humor that , would be, we are all going to die would make them feel good. [laughter] we were all going to die to make them feel good. so you know, but americans were unique people. so he said, i never dreamed that i would live long enough to hear you sing that song in person, and we just started crying and hugged each other. i mean, i get so emotional just thinking about it right now. bob santelli: and the song you sang at woodstock. country joe mcdonald: and i played it at woodstock, yeah. wasn't supposed to play it at woodstock. i mean, it wasn't a big deal, but they wanted me to fill in time for the audience because santana

and i went to the hanoi opera house where i was singing -- it's just like the paris opera house. singing a concert. and i was so troubled by what i saw. and realized what we had done, it didn't matter at that moment the kind of discussion about whether or not we -- what -- you know, president carter saying you can come back and -- that's not the issue. we have to love each other and accept each other and let that pain -- and not try and justify our pain by saying we were right or wrong. because if we don't look at what we've done and accept what we did terrible things, notwithstanding whatever was done to us, notwithstanding the pain of our friends and comrades who died or lived in misery and as p.o.w.s. yes. but how do we get beyond that? well, one of the ways we can do it is by having this kind of symposium. and one of the ways is by sing a song together that affirms something that's important no matter what position you took. and this song, when i came to the point of singing this at the hanoi opera house, i said i want to sing this song but i can't. i can't do it until i tell

especially if we accidentally bombed russian or chinese ships in the hanoi or haiphong harbor. he often said it will be a young pilot from johnson city texas who will accidentally start world war iii. the experience of korea where the chinese came down en masse to support the north koreans was constantly with him. the worry that we might in a chinese airspace. it was there. lbj anguished about that war. every single day. that is not an overstatement. the daily body counts. the calls either to or from the situation room often match 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. to see if the carrier pilots had returned. a regular tuesday lunch meeting that almost always consisted of the secretary of defense secretary of state the cia director the national security advisor the press secretary and a notetaker. [laughter] specific bombing targets were reviewed with him. he did not want to bomb the dikes. he did not wish to bomb the cities. he did not wish to bomb the food sources. only military targets. deeply personal. he had two sons in law in combat zone areas. letters and tapes that were sent ba

i knew all about hanoi hilton.aid, when we were in the compound they used to play hanoi hilton hannah. they would play american music to us to demoralize us, you know. and make us home sick and everything. but every time we heard -- it boosted our morale. and i thought be, those -- french educated vietnamese commanders could probably not understand american humor that we were all going to die to make them feel go. so you know, but americans were unique people. so he said, i never dreamed that i would live long enough to hear you sing that song in person, and we just started crying and hugged each other. i mean, i get so emotional just thinking about it right now. >> and the song you sang at woodstock. >> and i played it at woodstock, yeah. wasn't supposed to play it at woodstock. i mean, it wasn't a big deal but they wanted me to fill in time for the audience because santana band couldn't get there. and i hadn't been playing acoustic music. they said, you've got to save us. you've got to do something. i said, i don

the university's first president is a woman who grew up in hanoi. she remembers the war.our best to continue to deserve these titles. making peace is hard. in some way, it's harder than making war. in part this is true because our memories of war tend to harden as we age. for our personal happiness, we should resist this tendency. in order to avoid the mistakes that caused so much suffering, we can still make good foreign policy and national security decisions if we are completely ignorant of that history. plenty of experience of violence in the bitterness of these dramas. here's part of the poem. human beings suffer. they torture one another. they get hurt and they get hard. no poem, play, or song with fully right a wrong inflicted and endured. history says don't hope on this side of the grave. but then once in a lifetime, the long fore tidal wave of justice can rise up and hope, history rise. it is what we are trying to do today in vietnam. [ applause [ applause ] that's it. i'm done. >> we may still try to get you to talk about your experience in vietnam. we'll come ba

nguyen, nhk world, hanoi. >> that wraps up our bulletin. i'm patchari raksawong in bangkok. >>> emerging economies. powers still struggling with poverty. evolving citizens demanding democracy. the threat of violence. the push for peace. the shadow of conflict. get news and insight on southeast asia every weekday live from bangkok only on nhk "newsline." >>> and now here's the three-day outlook on weather for selected cities around the globe. >>> that wraps up this edition of nhk "newsline," i'm raja pradhan in tokyo. from all of us at nhk world, thanks for watching. for colombia to meet members of latin america's oldest rebel group. and for timbuktu in mali, badly dangered by so-called islamic state, life is returning to so-called oasis town. but first, we head to flint, where the town's drinking water is making people ill. it is contaminated with lead. lead is the worst environmental toxin of all, according to a global study, but it's still widely used in the manufacture of toys, jewelry, even candles. mining companies extract it, it can b

he would come in and play this transitor radio, the voice of vietnam, straight from hanoi.course it wasn't biased or anything. i can remember very clearly because this was during '72 when you had the presidential elections going on. you had a guy named richard nixon and george mcgovern. going back to what i said earlier, they distort as ike said the truth because the satellite, this young lady from hanoi said, george mcgovern was going to win the '72 election. i think maybe he carriy eied th states, one of them wasn't even his own. but it walked a lot about the protestersor, the anti-american sentiment. but you had to kind of filter that stuff out. even though and i'm gro going to be nice you had a guy on the program the other morning that was married to a famous actress. i have a different word thai will not share in public for that individual. she -- tom hayden as jane fonda did not help our cause. in fact, they played jane's recorded message for 30 days. and i will never forget when she ended her transmitting, talking about, these are poor innocent people. there were pow

. >> during an historic visit to hanoi, president obama lifted the arms embargo on vietnam calling it vestige of the cold war. >> the vietnamese are eager to build ties with cold war era foe in large part because of the threat posed by militarily aggressive china which is seizing territory in both the east and south china seas. >> trevor: there is a big deal, obama selling arms to vietnam and only doing it because china is seizing territory in the south china sea. i love how passive aggressive world leaders are. they're never just, like, yo, china, cut it out! instead, obama is, like, vietnam, i have 34eus also -- china, are you watching? china! just wait. vietnam, i have some -- china, china! vietnam, i have some -- china! yeah, watch, some missiles for you! some missiles! (laughter) you know, politics aside, people, you have to admit barack obama is the coolest president ever. he really is. he plays basketball, he tells jokes. (cheers and applause) you know, he smokes. it's like as if the president were black. just something special. now he's leaving and looks like choosing his repl

at that moment, i believe we telegraphed a message to general jop and the bosses in hanoi that they now had and would have for the rest of the war strategy -- strategic initiatives. they would decide when and where we would fight and how long the battle would last and all they had to do at the end of it was cross a line and they were -- time-out, we're going to have time to rest, refit, reinforce, and we'll come back when we're ready to fight you again. so it's in many ways very depressing to look at the blood that was lost -- the sacrifices that were made and see that it was all going nowhere. we were not going to win. i don't even think we could define what victory would look like in vietnam. so, that is my opinion. it is my story and i'm sticking with it. you guys are welcome to check in. >> as we expanded from 100,000 to 500,000, i went back in '69 and i didn't have the seasoned ncos like in '65 because the army had expanded so rapidly and so fast. and which was a shame. we had great -- we had great soldiers and many of them were promoted right out of basic training and had a -- an

he would play the voice of vietnam, straight from hanoi. of course, it was not biased or anything.laughter] sgt. wallingford: i remember because this was 1972 when you have the election is going on. you had a guy named richard nixon and on the democratic side you had a guy named your twig of. -- named george mcgovern. , thedistort, as ike said truth. it sounded like george mcgovern was going to win the '72 election. to carry maybe 23 states, one of them was not even his own. and the protesters -- you have to filter that stuff out. i'm going to be nice. there was a woman that there is there was a guy married to a famous actress. word for thatrent individual. [applause] tom and janeord: fonda did not help our cause. they played jane's recorded message for 30 days and i will never forget when she ended her transmission saying, these are poor, innocent people. there are in vietnam that were tortured that refused to meet with her. she never did come down to south vietnam vietnam, cambodia, whatever. -- inding statement was talked to your mother who was embarrassed the attorney general w

ended in '45, ho chi minh and the viehet men and the troops trained but under the leadership moved to hanoieclared vietnamese independence. present was arc meddies patty and they asked for help in translating the declaration of independence. he had some difficulty with some words and he wanted to get it right. >> which he included in his -- >> in the vietnamese declaration of in dependence. >> yes. >> and he also wrote to truman, several letters. saying, we want your help. we need help in developing economically. we have been under french colonialism since the 1870s, a very regimen form of colonialism and we need help in economics and education. help us. and we will open to you trade, investment, whatever. truman never answered the letters. later people claimed he never got them. most historians believe he did get them and just didn't answer them. and so ho was shut off from american aid at that point. but the relationship begins in the mid-40s. >> and the french of course come back. the decisions are made by the allied powers that the french will have their colonies back and thus begins th

john mccain went through torture in the hanoi hilton. he knows torture. it does not work.ands of people every year it does not work. it is just sadism that is satisfied that people who think it works, this is not an american value. we are not just having a debate about torture and what satisfies us. this is an honor crisis we're going through, when a presidential candidate believes george washington's own standing orders about the ethical treatment of prisoners is going to be violated we will throw away 240 years of our values. no one in the military, no one in government should ever believe that and if they do believe it they need go out and read some books. . i don't think i can add anything to that, michael nance, thanks for being with us. >>> more here on msnbc. stay with us. getting faster. huh? detecting threats faster, responding faster, recovering faster. when your security's built in not just bolted on, and you protect the data and not just the perimeter, you get faster. wow, speed kills. systems open to all, but closed to intruders. trusted by 8 of 10 of the worl

it would be seen again in the vietnam war when america carpet bombed hanoi and other parts of vietnam, dropping on a single small country more ordinance then we dropped in the entire pacific theater during world war ii. indeed, america in the 20th century waged total war to such a frightening extent that one cannot help but wonder if sherman had commanded in world ii or vietnam, would his detractors be so repelled? especially those white southerners that had been taught to hate him as a war criminal. if he had served in the same army, the union army was the united states army, look at any order issued, if he had served in the same army a century later and if his targets had been germans, vietnamese, japanese, would we still loathe him to the same extent? from sherman's perspective the southerners represented more of a threat to the united states than did the nazis, the communists, or the japanese imperialists. it was for dealing with domestic enemies anticipated how americans in the 20th century would fight their country's foreign foes. strike violently and boldly at armed forces, des

as a journalist he was based in hong kong, hanoi, and paris . first for the afp in the dow jones where he became the regional editor of the far east economic review. one of his most memorable assignments including covering the opening of vietnam. please join me in welcoming our panel today. [applause] mr. sherry: thank you for that intro. it is great to be here. we are very fortunate to be here with two reporters whose long and storied careers personify the healthy tension between a free press and government. just a word on format. i want to spend the first half of the panel asking -- i will be leading questions to them so we can bring up a range of insights that they have to offer, which really go from experiences in vietnam to the evolution of the relationship between the press and the military in later conflicts, to look forward to the fragmentation of the media landscape and its applications -- implications are. now, peter, you are in vietnam from -- probably, your first reporting trip in 1962, before the u.s. military buildup. and you did n