in the late '50s, the country split into south and north vietnam. have communists in the north so the united states is very eager to preserve the south from a communist takeover. >> the communist north vietnamese believed in nationalism, uniting their country under their own control. >> the cold war conspiracy was that if the vietnamese communist won, all of southeast asia, the dominos would fall. >> there is no doubt the fall of south vietnam would have serious repercussions on other areas of asian. this is the the reason we're in south vietnam. >> east and europe is falling to communism. we can't lose southeast asia so we have to stabilize south vietnam. >> january 2nd, 1963, they surprise a battalion in a village. five american helicopters are shot down. three american advisors are killed. 63 south vietnamese die, half of them shooting at each other. >> we have u.s. military advisors flying combat missions. adversaries accompanying forces into the field. so by this point, their role had gone beyond simply advising. >> we have learned a bitter less

there are not 2 million who died in a genocide in cambodia and another million who stormed out of south vietnam. still a half million in the south china sea people that are still there from trying to scare him. and people who said peace now, they got it. they got it, all right. but they did not say anything about it. there are some marvelous people who did, who really did. one. at every entire vietnam demonstration. the degree of -- high in washington d.c. he took in and out cinematic concentration camp out of south vietnam. 111 someone who has given the rest of his life to this because he feels so horrible about what he did during the war. in effect supporting the north vietnamese. he would do anything to try to make up for it. there are those people. unfortunately there are a lot of them who don't do that. this generation has stuck with the memory of vietnam, but it does not really have any justification to really feel that way except what people of. a good person give a false statement about losing the war and won. we should have kept our word. and once one that is considered the people of t

and then come back to south vietnam.that didn't work out so well for them but it was a place that madame nhu after her family was itself empowered, she go back to the land outside of rome which was not very valuable and sell it off piece by piece. >> i was always curious about that in a relationships with kennedy, the fact he disliked her so much and was were interested in how the catholicism worked into that. you would almost think that there might be some kind of, you know, sense of closeness between her and kennedy that was obviously not there. if anyone, the person who had the fondest thoughts about it would have been lbj. >> that's right. madame nhu convinced he was flirting with her but i think he must have flirted with everyone. but the connections between the family in saigon and the kennedy family in washington come is really, it's uncanny. on paper they look like they should've gotten along great. catholic dems, both governments run by a lot of family members, and very anti-communist. so they should have really

sim plip because she was a fascinating exploration of what went wrong with our involvement in south vietnam. and she sort of personalizes the history in a way that people of my generation when i was in eighth grade we koynts even talk about the vietnam war yet in school because it wasn't okay. it was too controversial. so i think now there's more education about it but i think it still is a hard conflict to streamline and get people talking about. so, if this is one way to do that, madame nhu is a polarizing figure and i think needs to be explored, warts and all. >> did your personal feelings for her change over time, affect the way you saw her? i don't know if you started the project having a sense of her being sort after black and white figure politically and historically. i don't know how, whether you did begin from that kind of position, but did she become more personalized because you were in the process of working on the book? >> when i started i thought this is a woman who is stereotyped and i was going to rescue her but she really didn't need to be rescued. she was good and bad. she

there isn't 2 million who die in a genocide in cambodia and another million who stormed out of south vietnam. there's still a half million in the south china sea that are still there from trying to escape. and i always feel this way. people who said peace now, they got it all right. but they didn't say anything about it. there's some marvellous people who did, who did. joan bias was at every anti-vietnam demonstration of any merit, particularly in washington, d.c., took an ad out in all the newspapers saying they have made a concentration camp out of south vietnam now that the north vietnamese have taken it it over. she couldn't get a lot of hollywood celebrities she wanted to sign that. someone who was give. ing the rest of his life to this because he feels so terrible about what he did during the war in effect supporting the north vietnamese was john voight, the guy is terrific. he did do anything to try to make up for it. there are those people. unfortunately, there are a lot of them who don't do that. therefore, this generation is stuck with a memory of vietnam that it doesn't really hav

vietnam. the public knew that in return for that, he would get the peace talks to begin involving the north vietnamese and the southetnamese would be permitted to take part in those. the public did not know he had these two military conditions as well, which were that the north vietnamese had to respect the demilitarized zone dividing vietnam and refrain from shelling civilian populations in south vietnam. the chennault affair was the nixon campaign's attempt, a successful one, to make sure that those peace talks didn't start before election day. nixon feared, correctly, the beginning of peace talks would help hubert humphrey and possibly ruin nixon's last chance at the presidency. so through a republican fund-raiser named anna chennault, the nixon campaign transmitted messages to saigon saying, hold on, we're going to win. we'll do better by you once we're elected. lyndon johnson found out about what chennault was up to through a variety of reasons. the national security agency was intercepting cables from the south vietnamese embassy to saigon. the cia had a bug in the president of south vietnam's office, and --

her brother-in-law, the brother of her husband, became president of south vietnam in 1956 or '55? >> '54. so, yes, madam nu is sort of the defacto first lady because the president of south vietnam, and there is a new titles before that, prime minister, premier, but for simplicity we'll call him the president. and he was a bachelor. bachelor makes it sound like he was going to vegas on the weekend, but he was really very moral, he slept on a hard, wooden cot. he personally signed entry visas in and out of the country, staying up late at night. so there is like this kind of very catholic, austere man who needs a first lady. he needs someone to host the parties, go to the orphanage and host the flower shows, and his older brother's wife becomes this woman and she's perfect for it. she looks great for the cameras, she loves to be out there. plus this kind of of gives measure a voiher a voice. all her life, madam nu had been looking for this purpose. she was an only child and sort of always had this chip on her shoulder. so to be handed this, here you go, be a first lady, be official h

but what we promised south vietnam was freedom. we used the bill of rights, particularly the first amendment as the instrument, and then expanded. it was everything you could think of. freedom of association, freedom of meetings, freedom of anything. and it was signed. signed by the vitt congress, signed by the north vietnamese, signed by the south vietnamese, we wong. -- we won. it came about because president nixon decided to bomb hanoi and haiphong until they came back to the peace table. the media city calls it the christmas bombing, once again an inaccuracy. we bombed in december, an the president asked some on his staff do you think we should bomb on christmas. i said, yes, they're not christians in north vietnam, they're eigh they're atheists. and they made -- they attacked. i said, by all means, otherwise they're going to take advantage of us, go through the ho chi minh trail. they will not stop because we do. the president didn't agree with me. he felt he shouldn't bomb on christmas. so we had a 36-hour bombing halt from c

vietnam regime. we supported the south. >> it's what becomes known as the domino theory.f southeast asia laos, cambodia, the philippines, they might be defeated. >> as i believe i reported upon my return from previous visits, i'm very much encouraged by the progress the south vietnamese forces have been making and the services our forces rendered to them. >> when vietnam started up, they believed that they had so expertly micro managed the cuban missile crisis that they can do the same in the southeast asian nation 10,000 miles away. the north vietnamese were very different from the soviets and khrushchev. and the attempt to resolve the vietnamese crisis through controlled escalation simply didn't work. >> the government of south vietnam has been overthrown by a military coup. >> if we are at all involved, i hope we don't have another bay of pigs on our hands. >> are we winning the war in south vietnam? >> winning? no, we're losing it. >> kennedy says to one of his principal aides that after he is re-elected in '64, then he can talk about getting out of vietnam. it is dif

she was calm her brother-in-law, the brother of her husband became president of south vietnam in 1956 or 55. >> fifty-four he becomes premier. so yes, madame nhu is the first de facto first lady because the president of south vietnam, and there's a few titles before that, primus to, premier, for simplicity call him the president. he was a bachelor. that's what makes them sound like he was going to vegas on the weekend but he was really very moral. he slept on a hard, wouldn't can't. he personally signed entry visas in and out of the country sing up late at night. there's this very catholic austere man who needed a first lady became somewhat to host parties and go to the orphanages and those flowers should. so madame nhu, his younger brotherbrother site becomes thin and she perfect for. she looked great for the cameras. should like to be out there. this gives her a voice. all of her life i think matter had been looking for the perfect combining, she was the second child, she been overlooked as a child. she had a bit of a chip on her shoulder, and so for her to be handed this, you go, b

and then come back to south vietnam. that didn't work out so well for them but it was a place that madame nhu after her family was itself empowered, she go back to the land outside of rome which was not very valuable and sell it off piece by piece. >> i was always curious about that in a relationships with kennedy, the fact he disliked her so much and was were interested in how the catholicism worked into that. you would almost think that there might be some kind of, you know, sense of closeness between her and kennedy that was obviously not there. if anyone, the person who had the fondest thoughts about it would have been lbj. >> that's right. madame nhu convinced he was flirting with her but i think he must have flirted with everyone. but the connections between the family in saigon and the kennedy family in washington come is really, it's uncanny. on paper they look like they should've gotten along great. catholic dems, both governments run by a lot of family members, and very anti-communist. so they should have reall

. >> these ruins are in saigon, capital and largest city of south vietnam. >> when we went to south vietnamtet, it was the first time and maybe the only time that walter had shown any kind of bias in his public broadcast. >> it is increasingly clear to this report, that the only rational way out would be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy and did the best they could. >> after walter cronkite, johnson's popularity sinks. >> to most ordinary citizens, it has become obvious the war is not being won. >> opposition to the war was rising. it wasn't just beatniks and young kids. >> we are fighting a war. i'm convinced that it is one of the most unjust wars that has ever been fought in the history of the world. >> martin luther king came out against the vietnam war. his own followers said you shouldn't be focusing on that. you should be focusing on our issue. he said they're intertwined, you can't separate them. >> president kennedy said on one occasion, mankind must put an end to war. or war will put an end to mankind. you hone

the south vietnamese that a cease-fire would be in place at least on a de facto basis, a lot of south vietnam soldiers went back to their home villages and neighborhoods to be with their families. the north vietnamese with the assistance of the viet cong, which was a communist -- coming is forced with an south vietnam, took that occasion to attack in a way they had never before, the major cities of south vietnam am including saigon and for a few hours even occupying portions of the american embassy in saigon. has studiedbody who the tet offensive militarily has concluded that it ended up being a major military victory for the united states and south vietnamese allies, but the facts on the ground could not compare with the psychological effect of the tet offensive, which was to undermine the idea that the communists were out of gas, that they were on their last legs, and that the war was drawing to a close. march, the 1968, by popular challenges to president johnson's renomination within the democratic party by first the antiwar senator eugene mccarthy of minnesota and then senator robert f ke

so they were patriotically behind the united states involvement in south vietnam. but because of that madame nhu and her family were really a stumbling block. they were screwing things up right and left and no one else was talking about it. so they were advocates for -- i don't say they were advocates for regime change, but they were advocates for getting america more involved in south vietnam reporting the facts as they saw them, which was hard to do in that context. i don't think they built madame nhu up. i don't think they liked her very much. >> she read them religiously. there's a point in the book where tell her that david had been killed in a car accident. you tell her, you break that news to her. she actually seems kind of saddened by it. as if it was a personal friend of hers, someone she had known well. >> he said something like she was the only one in the family who knew how to do a parade. she raised her hand like moous lee knee. no other reading would not be compliments, but she was like, i remember him. he was a good reporter and he always told the tr

answer is simply because she was fascinating exploration of what went wrong with our involvement in south vietnamand she sort of personalizes the history in a way people of my generation, when i is in eighth grade we couldn't even talk about the vietnam war yet is cool yet he cuts it was an okay here it was too controversial. so now there's more education about it, but it is still a hard conflict to streamline and get people talking about. so if this is one way to do that, madame nhu is a very polarizing figure and i i think it needs to be explored, and all. >> did your personal feelings for her change over time? i don't know if you started the project is a black-and-white figure politically and historically. i don't know whether you take became from that kind of a physician, but did she become much more personalizes you in the process of working on about quick >> when i started i thought this is a woman who's been stereotyped and i was going to rescue her and all this stuff. but she really didn't need to be rescued. she was good in that. she was complicated. i think my initial i am going to do t

cao ky, the a tremont is the author, former prime minister of south vietnam, the book is called "budda's child: my fight to save vietnam." did you very much. >> the redesigned to its website features 800 notable nonfiction authors and interviews about their books. you can view the programs and seek transcripts and used searchable database and find links to the blog, website, facebook pages and twitter feeds. a helpful research tool and a great way to watch and enjoy the authors and their books. >> in my assigned role, i was perfectly willing to entertain the possibility that another book on the same subject could come out simultaneously and i somehow missed it. he was are you telling me about the very important books the smug look that i knew so well and let me just say that my life as well sprinkled with a long succession of editors that i had in two and it's still remembered . and this includes other men as well. so i should have known when they interrupted her to say that that is her book. and he just continued on his way. he said that's her book for your four times before it she fina

. >> these ruins are in saigon, capitol and largest city of south vietnam. >> it was the first time walterany bias in his public broadcast. >> it's increasingly clear to this report that the only rational way out will be to negotiate, not as victims but as honorable people that lived up to the pledge to defend democracy and did the best they could. >> after walter cronkite, johnson's popularity sinks. >> to most ordinary citizens, it's obvious the war has not been won. >> it wasn't just young kids. >> we are fighting a war and i'm convinced it's one of the most unjust wars that has ever been fought in the history of the world. >> martin luther king came out, i guess, the vietnam war, his own followers said you shouldn't be focussing on that, you should be focussing on our issue. he said they are inner twined. you can't separate them. >> president kennedy said on one occasion, man kind must put an end to war, a war will put an end to man kind. >> you honestly think if there was an election, a vote for and against the war, that the anti war people would win out? >> well it's really hard to t

gerald ford tries to get seven hundred million dollars in aid for north south vietnam and bipartisan almost unanimous opinion in the congress says no way we're not giving these guys any more money by the way one of the right wing revisionist ideas is that the democrats and liberals did funding for vietnam the way it was barry goldwater was against it too so this humiliating thing happens as the famous evacuation of the embassy in saigon and there's this famous picture of people you know kind of america with its tail between its legs meet people going up the stairs to the roof to going to helicopter because the embassy grounds were controlled by the enemy and were too dangerous and what this kind of suggests is fifty eight thousand american lives have been lost in vain. henry kissinger is caught off the record although he's quoted saying we need to make some kind of america a demonstration of american strength and resolve somewhere to kind of prove that america still has its mojo and conveniently a month later. this merchant ship this teeny modest merchant ship ship called the mayague

knew that our war aims weren't even close to being met and he didn't really care he just wanted south vietnam to survive for another year or two so the election could be done with and he could say it was someone else's fault basically they called it the decent interval that's been proven but so after nine hundred seventy five in the spring of one hundred seventy five south vietnam does fall with blinding speed. tries to get seven hundred million dollars in aid for north for south vietnam and bipartisan almost unanimous opinion in the congress says no way we're not giving these guys any more money by the way one of the right wing revisionist ideas is that the democrats and liberals did funding for vietnam the way it was barry goldwater was against it too so this humiliating thing happens as the famous evacuation of the embassy in saigon and there's this famous picture of people you know kind of america with its tail between its legs many people going up the stairs to the roof to going to helicopter because the embassy grounds were controlled by the enemy and were too dangerous and what this ki

even so by 1972, when the north vietnamese undertook a major offensive in south vietnam, the south vietnamese army beat them. we threw that away. we shouldn't have been in there in the first place but having achieved what we set out to achieve within thread away. >> you have approximately one minute with this witness. >> just a quick question do not think we did see a counterinsurgency strategy in iraq and has not failed to produce the kinds of results we would like to see? >> the counterinsurgency when my family got her act together in iraq those that so-called surge was we finally thought the war the way it should have been fought. again put aside we should have been there but having been there that counterinsurgency war works. we beat the guerrillas which went against everyone's expectations with the u.s. army did there. working with locals, learn to fight at night and it worked and that is why the sunnis, the militias came on our side because they realized we are now knowing what we are doing that again like vietnam we threw away. >> thank you very much. mr. forbes you can step down and t

even so by 1972, the north vietnamese undertook a major offensive, south vietnam, the south vietnamese army beat them. we threw that away and we should have been there in the first place but having achieved what we set out to achieve we threw it away. >> you have approximately one minute. >> up the question. we did see a counterinsurgency strategy in iraq but hasn't that fail to reduce -- produce the results we would have liked it seemed? >> the counterinsurgency when we got our act together in 2006 in and 2007 at iraq that so-called surge was when i sent 20,000 more men and we fought the war it should have been fought. having been there that's counterinsurgency war worked. we beat the guerrillas which went against everyone's expectations with the u.s. army did there. working with locals and learning to fight at night. it worked and that's why the sudanese militias came on our side because they realized we now know what we are doing that again like vietnam we threw it away. >> thank you very much. mr. forbes you can step down. thank you gentlemen both. [applause] let's hear it for all

even so, by 1972, when the north vietnamese undertook a major offensive in south vietnam, the south vietnamese army beat them. we threw that away. you can say we shouldn't have been there the first place, but having achieved what we set out to achieve, we threw it away. >> you have approximately one minute with this witness. >> just a very quick question. do you not think we did see a counter-insurgency in iraq, and has that failed to see the kind of results we would like to see? >> the counter-insurgency, when we finally got our act together in 2006-2007 in iraq, that so-called surge wasn't the fact we sent 20,000 more men, it was we finally fought that war the way it should have been fought. again, putting aside we should have been in there. having been in there, that counter-insurgency war worked. we beat the gorillas, which went against everyone's expectation, what the u.s. army did there. working with locals rgs learn, o fight at night. and it worked and that's why the sunnis, the militia, came to our side, but again, like vietnam, we threw it away. >> thank you very much, mr. forbes. you

vietnam and their war against ho chi minh and the communist north. from 1963, a 30 minute u.s. army film documenting the act committees of william johnston the trains and assist south vietnamese troops while they are constantly being attacked and harassed by viet cong. 50 years ago, the situation in vietnam was transformed when lyndon johnson signed the gulf of tonkin resolution with congress granting the president rod powers to increase american involvement in the conflict. ♪ ♪ [gunfire] since the outbreak of hostilities in 1959, the united states army advisers in vietnam have undergone a variety of experiences and learned much about the complexities of guerrilla warfare in southeast asia. working -- these advisers have creased -- increase the numbers to more than 12,000. as --to referred to andh, lecture demonstration by setting an example. perhaps the advisors must important function is to advise and assist the unit commander to make suggestions skillfully and .iplomatically since 1959, when advisers were first sent to vietnam, many lessons have been learned, many guidelines, techniques have been developed. the best way to describe the experiences of u.s. advise

we also have to remember that the president's policies towards south vietnam increased the number of u.s. advisors there from i think roughly a thousand at the time eisenhower left office to 17,000, by the time president kennedy was killed. and, perhaps, most troubling, you have to remember that it was his administration that became complicit in the overthrow and, by extension, the assassination, of the president of south vietnam in october of 1963. the act which i think more than any other single act really pushed us down the path that would lead to the americanization of the war by lyndon johnson. so, my own -- i want to be fair to president kennedy. but, my own sense is that the argument made by mr. sorensen and others that his experience in office led to this radical shift in his thinking, simply doesn't tell the whole story. >> well, thank you for that illumination. i wonder then if you think, is there anything since world war ii in our history that would point toward an example of people that have broken the washington rules? >> well, i think... i think worth considering here i

to avoid a situation in which there was a division there were two elections that took place in south vietnam. in the first of these the logical rifles were catholic, and marshall key who was at least a nominal buddhist, marshall key who you may remember is a rather colorful character who was known to the population as mr. mustache. the embassy rather obviously favored you and the result was that there was an election in which there was a ticket and he accepted the vice presidency so it wasn't much of an election it was a foregone conclusion. the second the same thing took place. there was a possible candidacy of general means and ultimately there was an election in which the army candidate opposed some rather underfinanced vietnamese civilians. he was then assigned to work at the paris peace conference and he didn't like this much because his view and that of other people on the american side is that as long as the united states was withdrawing troops, which then it was committed to do in the beginning of the johnson administration, the vietnamese had no incentive to negotiate a serious agre

much in agreement about this -- was that there were dramatic differences between the provinces in south vietnam, the most pronounced differences depended upon the religious composition of the population, and how many of the people there had been refugees from the north. when the french not out of north vietnam there was a massacre of about 50,000 catholics, and this was followed by a flight to the south of more than a million catholics. and the united states played a considerable part in helping evacuate them to the south, which led senator george akin, who was best known for his later recommendation that the united states should declare a victory and go home -- to observe that no good deed goes unpunished. because the effect of having this very large northern population consisting most've of catholics in the south, was to create a condition in which the government of the south was almost entirely in the hands of northern catholics. and the provinces with a large catholic population were pro-government. the provinces that didn't have a large northern catholic population were at best neutralists

they would have had to go back for more bombing in 1975 to save south vietnam. put that issue aside and say nothing that happened in the second term, he would not have been on rushmore. but i think he would have been there with teddy wilson -- teddy roosevelt, woodrow wilson, in , because he took on this unbelievably difficult task of ending this war while trying to maintain american prestige and credit ability at a time when the country was as divided as the civil war. it is no president that andrew johnson and richard nixon's impeachments came because of these divisive wars. he still managed to put together a structure for the multipolar world we live in today. opening china, allowing japan and germany to rebuild, as with the other cold war presidents. i still think that and given today's polarized politics, you have to look at his mystic record as well and say he cooperated with the democratic congress. in part, because he had to. in part, because he did not care and wanted to focus on foreign policy. significantle did work with the democratic congress on the

at the end of 1963 the united states had about 16,000 military advisers in south vietnam sent to help the army of the republic of vietnam in their war against hoe chi min and the communist north. next a 30-minute u.s. army film documenting william johnston who trains troops. 50 years ago on august 10th 1964 the situation in vietnam was transformed when lyndon johnson signed the resolution to increase american involvement in the conflict. >>> since the outbreak of hostilities in 1959, united states army advisers in vietnam have undergone a variety of experiences and learned much about the complexities of guerrilla warfare in southeast asia. working through m.a.g. these advisers have increased in number to more than 12,000. each is assigned to a specific activity or unit to the army of the republic of vietnam commonly referred to as arvin to make sure that u.s. equipment is used and maintained properly and to teach by lecture, demonstration and by setting an example. perhaps the advisers most important function is to advise his unit commander to make suggestions skillfully and diplomati

vietnam and their war against ho chi minh and the communist north. next, from 1963, a 30 minute u.s. army film documenting the activities of captain william johnston who trains and assists south vietnamese troops while they are constantly being attacked and harassed by viacom. on august 10, 19 64, the situation in vietnam was transformed when lyndon johnson signed the gulf of tonkin resolution with congress granting the president broad powers to increase american involvement in the conflict. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ ♪ since the outbreak of hostilities in 1959, the united states army advisors in vietnam have undergone a variety of experiences and learn much about the complexities of guerrilla warfare in southeast asia. throughmagt, these advisers have increased in number two over 12000 and each is assigned to a specific activity or unit of the army of the republic of vietnam, common asarvin tod to make sure u.s. equipment is used and maintained properly and teach by lecture, demonstration, and by setting an example. perhaps the advisers most important function is to advise ,nd assist the unit commander to make suggestions skillfully and diplomatically in a manner adjusted to the customs and tr

vietnam. the public knew that in return for that, he would get the peace talks to begin involving the north vietnamese and the south vietnamese will be able to take part in those. he had two military conditions as well, which were that the north vietnamese had to respect the demilitarized zone dividing vietnam and refrain from shelling civilian populations in south vietnam. the chenault affair was the nixon campaign's attempt, a successful one, to make sure that those peace talks didn't start before election day. nixon feared the beginning of peace talks would help hubert humphrey and possibly ruin nixon's last chance at the presidency. so through a republican fund-raiser named anna chennault, the nixon campaign transmitted messages to saigon saying, hold on, we're going to win. we'll do better by you once we're elected. lyndon johnson found out about what chennault was up to for a variety of reasons. the national security agency was intercepting cables from the south vietnamese embassy to saigon. the cia had a bug in the president of south vietnam's office, and -- >> imagine that. >> what a surprise. >> when i sai

vietnam. the public knew that in return for that, he would get the peace talks to begin involving the north vietnamese and the southamese will be able to take part in those. he had two military conditions as well, which were that the north vietnamese had to respect the demilitarized zone dividing vietnam and refrain from shelling civilian populations in south vietnam. the chenault affair was the nixon campaign's attempt, a successful one, to make sure that those peace talks didn't start before election day. nixon feared the beginning of peace talks would help hubert humphrey and possibly ruin nixon's last chance at the presidency. so through a republican fund-raiser named anna chennault, the nixon campaign transmitted messages to saigon saying, hold on, we're going to win. we'll do better by you once we're elected. lyndon johnson found out about what chennault was up to for a variety of reasons. the national security agency was intercepting cables from the south vietnamese embassy to saigon. the cia had a bug in the president of south vietnam's office, and -- >> imagine that. >> what a surprise. >> when i said it a

from the french as the main sponsor for the anti-communist forces that were basically gathered in south vietnam. after the french got beat by the a at 10 been true -- a deinien n phu, we probably made a big mistake after world war ii by not recognizing the nationalist aspirations of countries like vi etnam, and instead backing up the former colonial powers like france. europe was way more important to us than vietnam. france, we needed as part of our nato in rebuilding europe against stalin and the communist threat. sideme in on france's while france was trying to keep in charge of vietnam. the japanese had taken over. they do have the vietnamese. they are fighting a 50 year war. versus the colonial french. then japanese. then the french came back with our support. as the the french came out, we came in. between 1953 and 1964 we have not really escalated our presence in vietnam. we had supported the southerners lit their country and refuse to participate in any elections. i think largely because they knew by the late 1950's they would have lost. ho chi minh had borne the greatest weight in beat

from south vietnam in the 1970's, and as they watched new generations of unaccompanied central american, haitian, and even cuban children arriving in the u.s., as they married and had their own children, and as they confronted changing political circumstances on the island and in the u.s. that allowed for dialogue and travel to the island beginning under the carter administration in the 1970's, and during the pope's historic visit to cuba in 1998. their competing collective memories about pedro pan came to the forefront of politics with a new degree of urgency in 1999 during the transnational custody battle for the five-year-old elian gonzalez. for cuban americans who identify with or as cuban exiles, it has emerged as one of the principal metaphors for and symbol of the exile from a regime so oppressive and atheistic that loving parents were willing to sacrifice their children and send them into exile alone to protect them from communist indoctrination and preserve their catholic faith. peter panists have become living symbols of that. their parents' decision and the decision of all ex