nixon dropped 4.5 million tons on indochina. about 30,000 people died somewhat less, under johnson. close to that died, 58,000 under nixon. if his policy was to get us out as quickly as possible, what went wrong? why did it take these extra years? essentially, almost nobody has an answer. the answer i would give is this -- he was going to continue air support, that was his objective. when duck hook was not carried out, they went into a different gear, that their threats would erode the other side and they would get neutral withdrawal. that was an unrealistic belief that by now, they were quite invested in their approach. from an american point of view they should have turned around into a next occasion strategy but they were still hoping to get neutral withdrawal they never did get it. by 1972, however, they got the demonstrations that american b-52s and close air support of the saigon army could in fact hold off the north vietnamese regime. that was an experiment that had never been done in history. it was a duel between high-altitude strategic bombers at 30,000 feet and ground arm

indochina presents an interesting case here.ennedy's indochina doubts were formed early, and it is the nature of those doubts i want to draw your attention to hear briefly this evening. he saw through, kennedy did. he went to indochina in the 1950's as a congressman with his brother and their sister. he saw, he questioned, whether france, or by extension any western power, could succeed in subduing ho chi minh's nationalist revolution. the doubts he exhibited on that initial trip in 1951, i don't think, ever went away, even after he begat -- became president a decade later. he showed, as president, a willingness to consider multiple analogies, not simply the first one that came to mind. during the cuban missile crisis, he thought not only of pearl harbor, the surprise japanese attack it led to world war ii, he also considered past european crises including the slide into world war i. kennedy had just read "the guns of august," and he took away from reading that, that giving way to pressures within one's government can lead you i

indochina presents an interesting case here. kennedy's indochina doubts were formed early, and it is the nature of those doubts i want to draw your attention to hear briefly this evening. he saw through, kennedy did. he went to indochina in the 1950's as a congressman with his brother and their sister. he saw, he questioned, whether france, or by extension any western power, could succeed in subduing ho chi minh's nationalist revolution. the doubts he exhibited on that initial trip in 1951, i don't think, ever went away, even after he became president a decade later. he showed, as president, a willingness to consider multiple analogies, not simply the first one that came to mind. during the cuban missile crisis, he thought not only of pearl harbor, the surprise japanese attack that led to world war ii, he also considered past european crises including the slide into world war i. kennedy had just read "the guns of august," and he took away from reading that, that giving way to pressures within one's government can lead you into a

and across the indochina peninsula, heavy rain fell in the bangkok area over the past 24 hours. more to come in to tuesday in the central and northern areas of the country. now, down towards the southern hemisphere we have been watching tropical cyclone nathan. nathan made landfall in queensland last week, and it made the second landfall over the week -- over the northern areas of the northern territory. and that is about to make the third landfall as a category 3 system. the landfall will be around tuesday morning. very destructive winds, as much as 170 kilometers are likely. and then move along the coast towards the west in to wednesday or even thursday. so heavy rain is likely to happen over a wide area some areas will see an additional 200 millimeters of rain. the ground is already very well saturated. additional rain worsening the situation. and across europe nasty weather continues over the mediterranean countries. we have one system over italy that has caused flooding in sardinia on sunday. now, the threat of thunderstorms, gusty conditions heavy rain will continue into m