amy: we will speak with john crane and journalist mark hertsgaard, who tells his story for the first time in his new book, "bravehearts: whistle-blowing in the age of snowden." all of that and more coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president obama has confirmed a u.s. drone strike in pakistan killed the leader of the afghan taliban. in a statement, obama called the death of mullah aktar hummad mansour "an important milestone." speaking earlier today in hanoi as part of his visit to vietnam, obama denied the killing marked a shift in the u.s. role in afghanistan. >> this does not represent a shift in our approach. we are not reentering the day-to-day combat operations that are currently being conducted by afghan security forces. our job is to help afghanistan secure its own country, not to have our men and women in uniform engage in that fight for them. amy: prior to war in afghanistan, the vietnam war was the longest war in u.s. history. as part of his visit to vietnam, obama announced the end of one of the last vestige