of course, some of the people of south vietnam are participating in an attack on their own government, but trained men and supplies, orders and arms flow in a constant stream from north to south. this support is the heartbeat of the war. it is a war of unparalleled brutality. simple farmers are the targets of assassination and kidnapping. women and children are strangled in the night because their men are loyal to their government. and helpless villages are ravaged by sneak attacks, large scale raids are conducted on towns and terror strikes in the heart of cities. the confused nature of this conflict cannot mask the fact that it is the new face of an old enemy. over this war and all asia is another reality, the deepening shadow of communist china. the rulers in hanoi are ruled -- are urged on by taking. this -- by peking. it has been condemned by the united asians for aggression in korea. it's a nation which is helping the forces of violence on almost every continent. the contest in vietnam is part of a wider pattern of aggressive purposes. why are these realities our concern? why ar

the whole country in south vietnam, i don't talk about north vietnam because i don't know anything about it. . but i don't think they're better than south vietnamese people. a don't have enough food in the north. and in the south, at the time we don't have enough food, we don't have enough medicine. we lack everything. in the first 10 years. the fuel, the kerosene for burning the lights at night and for cooking as well. we lacked that as well. at that time nobody wanted to say with the communists. and the people in the south vietnam tried to get out. the western countries outside do not want to play with the communists. so finally the first year and the second year and the third year, we don't have anything left. that's why i was in there 10 years. the first 10 years is very terrible for the whole south vietnam people. after 10 years, it's a little bit better. in 19 -- in 1995, 20 years later , vietnam and the united states had a diplomatic relationship again. so from 1995, it got more improvement. >> we were glad you are able to finally make it to america. like most of the speakers here

johnson: since 1954, every american president has offered support to the people of south vietnam. we have helped to build and we have helped to defend. thus, over many years, we have made a national pledge to help south vietnam defend its independence, and i intend to keep that promise. [applaus

thus over many years we have made a national pledge to help south vietnam defend its independence andend to keep that promise. [applause] >> mr. johnson projected america's policy in vietnam saying the united states was ready to begin without conditions diplomatic discussions to end the war in vietnam. he calls it the only path for reasonable men. >> demands and independent south vietnam, secure guarantees, and able to shape its own relationships to all others, free from outside interference, tied to no alliance, a military base or no country. >> he called on southeast asian nations for economic development and asked the united nations to join in the plan. >> on our part, i will ask the congress to join in a billion-dollar american investment in this effort as soon as it is under way. [applause] i would hope that all other industrialized countries including the soviet union would join in this effort to replace despair with hope and terror with progress. >> the president said the task is to enrich the hopes and existence of more than 100 million people. he pointed out that education an

is on board -- cannot do a deal unless south vietnam is on board. we go back and nothing happens in november. >> although all along, we have now decided to really ramp up the supply of the south vietnamese army to bolster their sense of security for any future agreement we might go into. winston lord: that's right. we were telling them we were going to back them up. nixon decides the only way to get an ipod's attention is military pressure. you had the famous christmas bombing, really took place around christmas time since the november talks got nowhere. within two days, the north vietnamese sent us a conciliatory note saying they wanted to talk again. we really did limit civilian casualties. i'm sure there was collateral damage, but we did our best to minimize it and when we went to hanoi later a couple months later, we could see there was no damage. the craters were up in areas that were not new the population . that got their attention, and we went back to negotiations. they did make some changes. we got the deal. kathleen mcfarland: two days afte

he was dedicated to preserving south vietnam. and he didn't want to see us walk away from south vietnam. largely phobe for those reasons he was resistant to putting an evacuation plan into place and green lighting it. early on when everybody, most people both on the ground and to some degree in washington realize the south vietnam was is going to fund was inevitable. c-span: the former cia agent very controversial was sued by her own government. why did you pick him? >> guest: well we were really committed to finding people who were on the ground who were in the embassy who were in saigon at the end of april when things were falling and he was there. he was sued by her government because he wrote a book about the events that took place. i don't believe that he was sued because he he misrepresented. he was sued because he wasn't supposed to share them in the capacity that they did but the reality is that he had very good first-hand knowledge and i think helps us explain the story for folks and to understand exactly what happened.

as word got out that the americans were leaving thousands of south vietnam vietnamese swarmed the gatesy worked directly for the u.s. mission in vietnam and were considered high risk. >> during the last day we played god. we determined who would be saved and who wouldn't. and it was heart-rending. would you get one person from the family, but not the child not the mother not the father. we separated families in a wink because we hadn't planned adequately. >> reporter: it was every man woman and child for themselves. this footage taken by british television crew showing just how crazed those final moments were. >> the embassy gates were closed and we like the frightened vietnamese and their families had to fight and claw their way up and we did claw and we did fight. and if it wasn't for one single american marine whose name i didn't have the time or chance to discover we would never have climbed our way to our evacuation. >> reporter: it's estimate they'd close to 800,000 vietnamese fled their home land as a direct result of the war. many of those refugees settled right here in orange c

thus, over many years, we have made a national pledge to help south vietnam defend its independence, and i intend to keep that promise. [applause] >> mr. johnson then projected america's policy in vietnam, saying the united states was ready to begin without conditions diplomatic discussions to end the war in vietnam. he calls it the only path for reasonable men. johnson: demands and independent south vietnam, secure guarantees, and able to shape its own relationships to all others, free from outside interference, tied to no alliance, a military base, or no country. >> he called on southeast asian nations for economic development and he asked the united nations to join in the plan. johnson: on our part, i will ask the congress to join in a billion-dollar american investment in this effort as soon as it is under way. [applause] president johnson: and i would hope that all other industrialized countries including the soviet union will join in this effort to replace despair with hope and terror with progress. >> the president said the task is to enrich the hopes and existence of more than

first, we felt that we had for 10 years sacrificed blood and money on behalf of south vietnam. we have done so much to help and we tried to prepare them with vietnamization. we pay our price. we felt it was the best deal we could possibly get. it was better than most people predicted in most editorials and pieces. people were saying, coalition government, get rid of tito. we thought there would be a chance for him to survive. we were not naÏve. we did not trust hanoi. if they nibbled at the agreement and had cease-fire violations, we felt that the south vietnamese with our supplies would be able to handle that they got to the point they can handle low-level violations. if there was massive attrition and invasion, which did happen, we thought that the american people -- they did not want to we did not want to go back in on the ground. but to uphold an agreement after all the sacrifices incredible power, at least resume our bombing. we thought the military decision -- military situation could be manageable. there was an aid program, they wanted to call it reparations. we had eight

. >> a fight to keep south vietnam from being swallowed up by neighbors to the north. in oakland the world airways dv 8 touches down on the last leg of the flight. on board, 57 children. some vietnamese and others, orphaned mixed-race children of vietnamese women and american gis. >> ross miller was trying to find a way to get orphans out of the country. the owner of world airways based in oakland he did not care about the rules. >> valerie witherspoon worked for daily. iet was dark. we hear the sounds of kids singing "california here i come". and they got on the plane. it was cargo configuration. no seats no oxygen masks. >> the flight was unauthorized, neither cleared by the u.s. or south vietnamese governments. jason garr was on board with his brothers. one official decided he was old enough to stay, and fight. >> he was doing that and other people tried to interfere with the pilot. and trying to buy it. >> he gave it to the young man >> one of the most-important items in my life. it ended one chapter and started a new chapter. may not look like much, but this is th

south vietnamese. prior to that, we had been conducting these talks bilaterally with north vietnam. kt: we are talking about north the enemies, the south vietnamese, the vietcong, who are all these groups? professor smyser: they were all controlled by the same group. the chinese communist party which had been developed before world war ii and at one point, wanted to close ties with the united states. they were groups that wanted to fight against the west in order to make it truly independent. and so they were people who would normally been our friends but because the french were also affects, we couldn't very well work with the vietnamese to make vietnam independent because that would be against the french. we were stuck with working with our allies in europe or working with countries that actually wanted to be our friends in asia. it was a very difficult situation. we finally decided that the best thing to do was just to work with our friends in europe and to try and help our friends in europe achieve some kind of peaceful settlement for their war with independent people are -- or t

. >> a fight to keep south vietnam from being swallowed up by neighbors to the north.world airways dv 8 touches down on the last leg of the flight. on board, 57 children. some vietnamese and others, orphaned mixed-race children of vietnamese women and american gis. >> ross miller was trying to find a way to get orphans out of the country. the owner of world airways based in oakland he did not care about the rules. >> valerie witherspoon worked for daily. iet was dark. we hear the sounds of kids singing "california here i come". and they got on the plane. it was cargo configuration. no seats no oxygen masks. >> the flight was unauthorized, neither cleared by the u.s. or south vietnamese governments. jason garr was on board with his brothers. one official decided he was old enough to stay, and fight. >> he was doing that and other people tried to interfere with the pilot. and trying to buy it. >> he gave it to the young man >> one of the most-important items in my life. it ended one chapter and started a new chapter. may not look like much, but this is the first stop for

his father owned the recycling company and biggest paper mill in south vietnam. >> my father, they used to call him the king of trash. >> reporter: the family empire vanished overnight on april 30th 1975. communist soldiers seized all their properties. they escaped in a boat with just the clothes on their backs. >> we left with nothing. >> reporter: a rescue ship rescued them from their sinking boat. >> we're so lucky. if they don't rescue us, definitely we're going to die. because we see it in front of our eyes. >> reporter: after years at a refugee camp, they came to the u.s. the family landed here in the tenderloin. 16 relatives cramped in to two studios. david was 19 at the time. he quickly learned the road to success wasn't paved with gold, but with cardboard. >> after we do our homework early in the afternoon we jump on the truck we go help and pick up cardboard on the street with a van. >> reporter: a job his family did every day for three years. the pay-off their first recycling warehouse in west oakland. >> from this cardboard here to start our business today. sthoo the califor

south vietnam. marked the end of the u.s. involvement after a decade long war, 3 million vietnamese and 58,000 u.s. soldiers died. >> more than 15 tons of ivory have been destroyed and democratic republic of congo is part of a campaign to stop the slaughter of elephantses. authorities in both countries say it send as clear message in the right against ivory traffickers. africa lost one fifth of it's elephant population h the space of two years. all for the appetite of the illegal ivory trade. >> where it is carved and a multimillion dollars global business not all the contraband gets through. fentons of ivory is disposed of by a rock crusher. what comes out the other end is only suitle for the landfill sight. we do not tolerate illegal wild life trade and everything we confiscate we destroy, there is a small amount which we are using to do d.n.a. analyst to find out where this is coming from. but what we have collected over the years is being destroyed today. another destroys five tons of ivory this time, with an illegal wild

would become baby lift, 3,000 very young children, many of them orphans were airlifted out of south vietnamt weeks before the fall of saigon. >>> and many to be adopted by american families. >>> i didn't know, that, ford, himself an orphan, had decided to start evacuating some of the people out of saigon. >>> and as luck would have it, the air force pilot was assigned to fly the plane. >>> a young captain, he had no clue that he would be carrying babies inside his massive cargo hold, with no gameplan, what we need is, blankets and juices and milk and pillows and diapers, and all that stuff. >>> his c5 8 departed the air base with the bearest of the necessities than 300 people on board. and, 12 minutes into the flight, the locks failed. >>> the locks all broke the ramp dipped into the slip screen and, ripped off and when it did, it broke the back of the pressure door, the trouble was when the door went through the tail, it took all of the flight control cables. >>> he had very little control of the monster cargo plane but they managed to turn it around and, emergency landing. >>> we touched

what was happening and the reality was they were doing everything they could to save south vietnam --ietnam needs. i think it does adjust our understanding of those final days in an important way. >> woodruff: rory kennedy, the documentary is "last days in vietnam" on american experience. we thank you. >> thank you so much. >> ifill: finally tonight, broadway honors some of its finest shows and performers. the tony nominations were released today, with the musicals "an american in paris" and "fun home" leading the pack with 12 nods each. arts correspondent jeffrey brown has profiled several of this year's nominees, including "disgraced," which is up for best play. it examines questions about identity and islam in america after 9/11. jeff spoke with playwright, ayad akhtar, about what he was hoping to convey to audiences. >> there was a character who was speaking to me with this kind of relentless passion, amir, the lead character in the play, who has this very particular point of view on islam. he's muslim birth, of birth and origin, but has sort of strongly moved away from it and is

formally saigon the capitol of south vietnam. the fall of saigon in 1975.le the final end of the u.s.' decades involvement in the country. and the people there came out to celebrate. 75 to 2,015. the 30th of april 1975. it has spent the last four years sending back information to the plannest closest to the sun in an hour's time, i think nasa's messenger mission to mercury will finally come to an end as it crashes into the surface of the planet. the science editor will explain the knowledge about the formation of the solar system and it's smallest planet. it is only slightly bigger than the moon, until the spacecraft arrived in the orbit in 2011, little was known about the planet. a sol i core, with much bigger and it is now almost assured that there is a liquid core also there surrounding this mercury which is producing a magnetic field. >> messenger reveals mercury's moon like service in unprecedented detail. scarred by the collision of asteroids and meet rides. the effortrecorded surface. and it happened ancient lava flows and discovered ice at the polls

than 6,000 soldiers and veterans prouded through ho chi minh city former asaigon, the capital of south vietnam. the fall of saigon marked the final end of america's decades-long involvement in the country. 75 million litres of toxic chemicals were dispensed by the forces it vietnam. many are lying with the leg as -- living with the legacy of that contamination. a warning that you may find images in scott heidler's report distressing. >> reporter: tu was not alive during the war that carries his country's name, a war that ended 40 years ago, but the effects robbed the 7-year-old of a normal life. more than that, it will kill him. like it killed his sister. she was seven when she died from the same blood disease they both suffer from. his father works at the da nang airport, a site where planes were loaded with agent orange. it contains dioxin, causing birth defects, cancer and other diseases, which can be passed on from parents. >> translation: i wish the u.s. would fully decontaminate where agent orange were sprayed. we suffered from this. i don't want it for future generations. >> reporter: t

the north vietnamese took over as much as a third of south vietnam during the easter offensive of 1972. >> i see people dying every day before my eyes. >> reporter: nick ut's iconic photograph of a young vietnamese girl accidentally hit with napalm during the north vietnamese invasion of the south marked the beginning of the end of the diminishing public support for the war by many americans. >> right at the beginning, they say that picture went anti-war everywhere. that means the war will be over. >> reporter: only a teenager at the time, nick ut was a self- taught photographer who had replaced his photographer- brother killed earlier in the war. he covered the collapse of the south vietnamese army and the mass exodus of retreating military and civilians. all seeking a last sanctuary in the saigon area in april, 1975 >> even me i didn't think saigon fall right away maybe next two months, maybe two or three years. >> reporter: photojournalist nick wheeler on assignment for newsweek and u.p.i covered the fall of bien hoa. the last major military base just outside of saigon. and the init

some of the agent orange that rained down on south vietnam's jungles were stowed and loaded in a former military base in da nang the first american funded clean up began just three years ago. a complex process that super heats the contaminated soil in a massive furnace. a touchy subject for the manners. they still dispute da nang's first that 3 million to 4 million have been affected by the chemical. >> for the vietnamese it's pollution. and cooperation has hitting this historical legacy but just in terms of the chemical, there are other sources in vietnam. >> regardless of the source the current generation suffer something slowly focused on survival. >> i want all people to do everything medically like blood transfusions to keep my boy alive as long as possible. >> now he undergoes two transfusions a week. while his mom hopes future generations see the dark legacy of agent orange come to a close her family lives day-to-day. scott haidler, al jazeera, da nang. >> you can always keep up-to-date with all the news at our website at www.aljazeera.com.

it is my opinion you bankers are reciprocating the fall of south vietnam. they are from the embassy or for me. then he stopped and said now get out of here. the next thing i know i was out on the street to continue on with what was happening in the next day i was the only fncb officer or person on the plane and there's the little finger i get once in a while. i hope you will find out what happens later. [applause] this is really nice. i would like to introduce each person here and then have a few moments or menace to make whatever comments they would like to. do i need to keep it -- can you hear me just as well? wonderful. this is mr. schwinn and he was the senior officer at the vietnamese staff and his when i turned it over to after we wrestled and fought and earned travelers checks and safety paper and things like that. maybe you would like to begin then i'll move on to mrs. cook. >> when we said before the telex machine and from my office that we didn't have enough money. if we do, we just pay off and get the heck out of the country because we are closin

escalation of the conflict and those who thought the united states is not doing enough to help south vietnam. titled " peace without conquest," explained why southeast asia was of vital interest to the united states and laid out plans for economic development in vietnam. u.s. military personnel went from about 23,000 in january of 1965 to over 180,000 by the end of the year. johnson: vietnam is far away from this quad campus. we have no territory there or do we seek any. the war is dirty and brutal and difficult and some 400 young men born into an america that is bursting with opportunity and promise have ended their lives on vietnam's steaming soil. why must we take this painful road? why must this nation hazard its ease and its interests and its power for the sake of a people so far away? we fight because we must fight. if we are to live in a world where every country can shape its own destiny and only in such a world will our own freedom be finally secure. this kind of a world will never be built by bombs or bullets. yet the infirmities of man are such that force must often precede reason

global struggle of colonialism. >> there's those that shaw that vietnam was a small country with bare foot soldiers defeating a maritime south-east asia the vietnam victory was a worry and led to regional cooperation to stop the spread of communism. >> how about the failure of what is referred to as some of these anticolonial and national liberation movements gaining factry and they face failure in how the countries develop. is that a theme that vietnamese and others reflect on? >> i think so. particularly the younger vietnamese that don't have the feeling of the war and colonisation. and the movement in the case of china hoping up was a recognition by the communist party that they needed to seek popular legitimacy between economic reform and growth. >> thank you for your analysis of that. while the u.s. army waged a war in vietnam, americans grew fed up with politicians and a mounding death toll. public opinion turned against them. we spoke to a historian, and the effect it had on america's foreign policy. >> i'm rick i'm an historian. in a certain sense, america's haunting by the vietnam war shaped our history, almost more

like most americans, i had never heard of the 1954 agreements in geneva that divided north and south vietnam. i did not have any knowledge of the background and history of the vietnamese people. i believed it was the classic struggle between communism and freedom. kelly: in the time before you were taken prisoner, how did the actual experience of being in vietnam differ from what you imagined? senator mccain: my views about the conflict were not affected in any way that i can remember, but the futility of the way we were carrying on the air war became more and more apparent. we'd watch the russian freighters pull into the harbor unload the missiles and truck them up and put them in place. we could not touch them, and then they would be fired at us. that kind of war -- targets picked by lyndon johnson in the basement of the white house. i remember one target i had one day was a place that had been bombed numerous times before and 100 yards away was a bridge. could not strike the bridge, but could make the concrete ounce at the target i was assigned. it was foolish, and all of us knew it was f

some of the agent orange that rained down on south vietnam's jungles were stored and loaded at the former u.s. military base in denang. a so-called dioxan hotspot now the site of the never sal airport. the first american funded cleanup began three years ago. a touchy subject for the americans, they still dispute the filth that three for 4 million vietnamese have been affected by the chemicals . >> what for vietnamese are the biggest experience which is environment the pollution the cooperation is hitting this historical legacy, there are other sources in vietnam. >> reporter: regardless of the source the currents generation suffering are solely focused on survival. >> translator: the thing i want the goodwill of all people to do everything medically like blood transfusion to his keep my boy alive as long as possible. >> reporter: and the until needs recently intensified he now you were goes two transfusions a week. while his mom hopes future generations see the dark legacy of agent orange come to a close her family lives day-to-day. scott heidler, al jazerra, da nang. >>> still ahead in t

, the tet holiday, usually there was a sensation of hostilities, more than 100 cities all over south vietnam vc. hue quickly fell. you have seen these images. it was footage like this that turned finally a great part of the american public against the war. the u.s. marines fought house to house to retake the city. a vicious 3 1/2-week-long battle. eventually, artillery and air support were called in. the city was saved. and, of course, largely destroyed in the saving. the civilian population caught in the cross fire were equally devastated. the north vietnamese to their enduring shame had while controlling the city rounded up anyone seen as a potential enemy and either disappeared them away to unknown prisons or killed them outright. most notoriously when they massacred almost 3,000 people, rolling them, many of them still alive in mass graves in and around hue. duk knows full well the horrors and heartbreak of that time. in his memoir, "where the ashes are: the odyssey of an american family," he captures the terror of a nine-year-old boy, the son of a high ranking south vietnamese civil ser

january, told the president that we have, to paraphrase it, we have driven the veet congress out of south vietnam to the borders where we are pursuing them. this was ten days or so before the veet congress hit simultaneously. so it made westmoreland look quiet bad. westmoralland was told that afternoon that he would be replaced. i was anxious to see westmoreland replaced because i knew that he was likely to use nuclear weapons over jenbenfu i'm sorry over kayson which they were afraid would be another. so that's another story. that's why i did it. i foresaw the president giving what he had just asked for, 206,0 0 troops. you've read this story. mainly, i wanted the president, johnson, to feel that his administration at high levels have suddenly become transparent. that he would not be able to give westmoreland secretly a hundred thousand troops or two hundred thousand troops and lie about what he was given. more troops that hn he revealed to the public. to thinking that he could do it secretly, i wanted him to know that if he made that decision, it would leak out. and the way i thought of continu

and chaos in south vietnam. and in the pentagon then. i know that. great pressure from secretary mcnanera. he would come back from the white house and say the president is not going to make a decision in the misof a presidential campaign. the day after the election mcnamera had five alternatives built up and thought that johnson would approve of them. instad he sent bundy to vietnam twice. he sent bob over the next several months. not you know. always reluctant to do it. and finally, he does a greechl the only person that would oppose is george ball in the government. and clark clifford. of the washington lawyer who wrote the toughest memorandum of why she we should not do it. in the book. in that chapter. and then with everybody else pushing he finally does much less than what was recommended and 75,000 men. was not a few. and a constant constant. constant buildup. by the end of 67 he was really determined to enthe war in his presidency. and in retrospect. i didn't know it was vehement opposition at the time. and would make it. and when it left. and

more than 3,000 babies were evacuated from south vietnam during the fall of saigon. a preview of tonight's second look where a former ktvu reporter went back to vietnam in 1988 with fathers that left children behind when the war ended. a young boy with a smile on his face. beerfield is tied up trying to clear customs. he is told his son is outside. finally, the paperwork is done. bearfield rushes out to see the son he only knew as a baby. >> but for one child, there was no one to hug. dennis wayne isaacs junior thought he would meet the man woe divorced his mother, but kept in contact with pictures and letters, dennis isaac senior could not raise the money for air fare from oklahoma. young isaac had been told that, but he told his mother he didn't believe his father would come. there will be no reunion with their father. >> guy is going to be rewarded. there is a lot of love out there waiting. >> for more of an in depth look at the vietnam baby look at 1975, watch "a second look" at 11:00. right after the 10:00 news. >> >> a portion of san francisco's van necessary a

south vietnamese forces. what happened subsequently is most battles that then occurred in vietnam were u.s. and south vietnamese forces against north vietnamese regulars. but what happened is the perception was, is the vietcong were everywhere. oh my dear, they can get to every location and they set the tone of the engagement. that's what we are seeing now. possibly in iraq. >> and phil, we all remember benghazi with an american ambassador murdered. now you have the first isis attack directly against americans at a consulate. you're worried what this means about their intent to the american homeland. how big is the risk? >> i think the risk is significant, just because of volume. look when we sat at the threat table at the fbi years ago, you would say, okay we've got four or five guys on the radar maybe ten guys on the radar, and then there's a bunch of wannabes out there. we might be looking at four five kids that have gone to the tribal areas of pakistan for training significant problem, but compared to what we're looking at here when you're talking about thousands of foreigners going, i c

without briefing the other. >> you talked about 74 and the consequences of the suspension of aid to south vietnam. you must have been working hard to keep that alive. did you do anything wrong you go would you do anything different? john lehman: the key juncture -- particularly with regard to cambodia, there was a proposal on the house floor and jerry ford was the republican leader and kissinger -- i arranged a call from kissinger to give with jerry ford to give ford the ammunition to block it. and the delicate thing we were doing here was kissinger had really made a deal with joann lie that there will be a negotiated settlement for cambodia, the chinese. the vietnamese -- would stop the vietnamese from supporting the khmer rouge. because they did not want to become a rouge -- the, rouge -- the khmer rouge or especially for the vietnamese to get control of cambodia. this deal had been negotiated by kissinger. kissinger explained to ford over the phone -- a secure phone, i believe -- that this deal had been arranged for -- i forget the dates but it was like -- the debate was going on in may, he sa

during the time he was president of south vietnam. that assassination. there were some memos relating to that trying to peddle it to people in the media. so, there's a lot of really troublesome stuff. not any of it related to watergate. i'm not sure if it was obstruction. obstruction of justice is a crime which nailed most of the people involved in watergate that i know a lot more about today than i did then. but it's still as fuzzy a crime as a prosecutor has in his kit. it's pretty much anything that you don't give the prosecutor that he wants. or he thinks may be somehow relevant or find in his interest to be a very serious crime. and you just can't, i don't see, you know, how, when you get into a situation where the politics are such high-stakes at that level, that you would expect to turn over, the kind of data that would have destroyed richard nixon and call that obstruction of justice. >> let me ask you about the enemies list. >> that's one of the things that got vastly more attention than it probably deserved. i certainly hadn't planned to testif

south vietnam. now the fall of saigon marked the end of the u.s. involvement after a decade long where are. 3 million vietnamese and 58,000 u.s. soldiers died. still the. co, exactly a week until the general election, a look at the country's changing political landscape, plus. the government services in greece are being asked to give over their cash. a race to the top this man really did have a mountain to climb, and he didn't waste any time. details later on this this news hour, so stay with us if you can. >> a real look at the american dream. "hard earned". premiers sunday, 10:00 eastern. only on al jazeera america. god to have your company. this is the al jazeera news hour. time to run through the global headlines. two people have been rest queued five day after the earthquake killed at least 5,800 people. the united nations is more people in remote rural areas that they are in desperate need of help. a senior u.s. diplomate told the president that he riskses fueling further protests if he continues to stifle political opposition. antigovernment

operation in which some 3,000 very young children, many of them orphans were air lifted out of south vietnamjust weeks before the fall of saigon on april 30th, 1975. many to be adopted by american families. >> i didn't know, that gerald ford himself an orphan by the way had decided to air lift some people out of vietnam. >> authorized to fly the first baby lift flight out of saigon. just after 4:00 p.m. with the barest of necessities and more than 300 people on board. 12 minutes into the flight at in 22,000 feet disaster struck. the locks on the plane failed. >> only a handful of people survived. >> in all wu 38 people were killed in that crash including 78 children. baby lift adoptee laura price was told she was on that plane. one of the dozen seated in the top portion of the plane who survived. laura was air lifted out of saigon with very few records and almost no information about her birth family. >> i grew up with this belief that i came over on this plane that crashed. and i was a survivor. >> the crash was also traumatic for laura's documentive mother, loretta olmstead. loretta believ

south vietnam capitol was taken by the communist north in april of 1975. takeover officially ending the vietnam war and america's decade long involvely. the vietnamese still have a communist government to this day. >> a special day for a vietnam vet in our area. >> had a a* man believed for decades he was a us citizen finally make it official today. 73-year-old earhart went sell moved from germany to the s with his family as child. u.s. drafted him and he served our country in vietnam thinking he'd become a citizen. he only found out when applying for social security that the paper work had never been filed. and now finally on the 40th anniversary of the fall of saigon he has what he has been waiting decades for. >> hoe help me god. >> so help me god. >> congratulations! (applause). >> such an incredible moment. he's so grateful for the opportunity to live his life as a u.s. citizen congratulations to mr. went sell and his family. i know how near and dear these types of celebrations are because my mom i remember her taking her citizenship test and we were

. >> good evening, in south vietnam today a ghastly chapter was added to the pathos of war that grippedtry the past 30 yearsa huge c5 air force cargo plane carrying 243 south vietnamese orphans to the united states, first in the government ordered airlift, crashed in a rice pat denear saigon just minutes after take off. >> cowan: walter cronkite reported news on april 4 1975. less than a month later the capital is he of saigon was captured by communist viet-cong. many more orphans had been flown out of their homeland now barry peterson say some of those children, long since grown up, are coming home. ♪ >> they have come to remember that terrible day in that terrible war. some of those put aboard the plane had been born only weeks ago. most seem to be between ages of two and eight. there were pieces of wreckage scattered across half mile of rice patty. shirts books diapers, all too grotesque to describe further. >> the crash killed 138 people, 78 of them were children. ♪ >> as we read the names of our beloved dead -- >> but orphans continue to be evacuated until the frantic end of the vi

on his second tour of duty in the navy as a journalist when his aircraft carrier was crashed in south vietnam. he previously wrote for stars and stripes and while he was stationed in sicily and iceland. bill's sister, closer in age margo, remembers him as an intelligent, determined person whose plan was to come home and have a career in the foreign service. john ellison jerome was from walcot and was born on april 3 1946. he served in the army, 196th infantry brigade. jerome died on january 10, 1968. he was 20 years old. he was the fifth of seven children. jerome's oldest daughter maggie remembers him as having a unique love of life, a great oldest sister -- excuse me -- margie remembers him as having a unique love of life, great story teller and everyone's friends. margie tells about how jerome would often give his family side aches, would give his family sideaches because jerome made them laugh so much on long car trips. jerome didn't say goodbye to anyone when he left for vietnam. his family was told that he was the last survivor of his unit, that he manned the radio until his death. chest

well, now, this year, i'm listing the government of south vietnam. >> i would just stop people in the douglas fairbanks jr., "would you just say 'sock it to me'?" and he'd say, "sock it to me? sock it -- what do you mean 'sock it to me'?" and then we'd run that. >> sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me. >> sock it to me. >> sock it to me, honey! >> hey, i got a great idea. why not sock it to joey? >> a pink marine is a happy marine. >> and see-through blouses, huh? >> mm-hmm. well, you see, it's a safety device. no fashion-conscious enemy would shoot and ruin and nifty number like this. >> well [clears throat] as an ex-marine, i think i know what the boys want. >> hmm. you were a marine, huh? did you, uh, see any action? >> you better believe it. >> well, it's been a few years john smith, since they had your head on the chopping block. how have you been getting along? >> real fine, dan. real fine here at the reservation, you know. as a matter of fact, the indians even have a little name for me now. >> oh, really? >> yeah, they call me "running chicken." >> [ laugh

escalation of the conflict as well as those who thought the united states was not doing enough to help south vietnam. titled "peace without conquest," the address attempted to explain why southeast asia was of vital interest to the united states and worthy of sacrifice and laid out plans for economic development in vietnam. u.s. personnel went from about 23,000 in january of 1965 to over 180,000 by the end of the year. president johnson: vietnam is far away from this quiet campus. we had no territory there, nor do we seek any. the war is dirty and brutal and difficult. and some 400 young men born into an america bursting with opportunity and promise have ended their lives on vietnam's steamy soil. why must we take this painful road? why must this country hazard its ease, interest, and power for the sake of a people so far away? we fight because we must fight if we are to live in a world where every country can shape its own destiny

south vietnam was captured by the north. the event ended decades of violence. 58,000 u.s. and three million vietnam me is perished -- vietnamese perished. tom: there it is. that is something. olivia: bud light recently withdrew their newest slogan after it received backlash online. the brand said it was "the perfect beer for removing 'no' from your vocabulary for the night." some people said it connected alcohol through sexual assault. the label went through five layers of approval. probably not the right marketing strategy. our number one photo of the day is a song. warren buffett serenading the annual shareholders meeting with a ukulele. >> ♪ i would like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony ♪ ♪ i would like to buy the world a coke and keep it company ♪ ♪ i would like to teach the world to saying ♪ olivia: you can play a ukulele, right? tom: i can fake a ukulele. i think it is a pile of folksome. olivia: you think he is shilling for coke? tom: he does light interviews with light answers. he is folksy. i want to rip up the script. admiral stavridis:, you cannot p

escalation of the conflict as well as those who thought the united states was not doing enough to help south vietnam. the address attempted to explain why southeast asia was of a vital interest to the united states and worthy of sacrifice and laid out plans for economic development in vietnam. u.s. military personal one from 23,000 in january of 1955 to over 180,000 by the end of the year. president johnson: vietnam is far away from this campus. we have no territory there, nor do we seek any. the war is dirty and brutal and difficult and some 400 young men born into an america that is bursting with opportunity and promise have ended their lives on vietnam's steaming soil. why must we take this painful road? >> why must this nation hazard its ease and its interest and its power for the sake of a people so far away? president johnson: we fight because we must fight. if we are to live in a world where every country can shape its own destiny and only in such a world will our own freedom be finally secure. this kind of world will never be built by bombs or bullets. yet, the infirmities of man are such th

not the president himself, responsible for the killing of dm during the time he was president of south vietnam, that assassination. there were some memos relating to that where they tried to peddle it to various people in the media, a guy named lambert in colson's office. so a lot of troublesome stuff, again, rin lateunrelated to watergate. i'm not sure if that was truly an obstruction to do that, because i had very clear instructions from peterson that they were only going to look at the watergate break-in. this obstruction of justice is a crime which nailed most of the people involved in watergate that i know a lot more about today than i did then. still, it's about as fuzzy a crime as a prosecutor has in his kit. because it's pretty much anything that you don't give the prosecutor that he wants, or he thinks might be somehow relevant, not only that to anything else he might find of this interest to be a very serious crime. you just can't -- i don't see, you know, how, when you get into a situation where the politics are such high stakes at that level that you would expect it to just turn ov