this is the northern part of south vietnam and the southern part of north vietnam.ho chi minh trail which comes through generally through two passes but primarily through the lugia pass using route 23 comes down the western spine of the mountains. this is a very, very mountain now terrain, very rugged, very difficult to deal with. during the monsoons, it makes it impossible during those five months to use any vehicle travel in this area. but the north vietnam niece built a system of trails and roads through this western portion of the range and used it to resupply all of their forces all the way down. >> down to saigon? >> down to saigon. >> below that. >> yeah. one key vulnerability of the ho chi minh trail was the fact that geography can't be changed and geography forced all of these forces, all of these systems to come through and area of about 20 square miles around the laosian town. and because of that, there were certain chokepoints where vehicles could not get through if they were blocked. and remember this, it's important to remember this, from talking to th

they now not only have to balance the powers of reintegrating southerners into vietnam, some southerners who butously fought communists, they also now have to deal with a very unstable cambodia and have to deal with a china that is increasingly aggressive. for not as easy, i think, the high noise politburo coming out of the american phase of the vietnam war to simply call it success and move on. he died in 1986. that was the turning went. -- turning point. people who came after him said, communism doesn't work. it didn't work in china. >> i want to get back to strategy and tactics. the french were able to hold the entire indochinese peninsula with about 200,000 troops. we had a half a million troops, and westmoreland wanted to hundred thousand more, if i'm brought upon which the resin nation of the president -- the resignation of the president. didn't we learn anything from the french? >> we did. i might suggest that the phrase that the french held indochina with that many troops might perhaps not be accurate, that the french will hold certain areas, and those areas are urban areas, but

vietnam as we head into tuesday night local time. it will weaken, but slowly progress across the southern areas of china into vietnam. this is going to be a major rain situation with rainfall amounts from 150 to 250 millimeters possible as we go through the next couple of days. so definitely watching out for that. we have a low pressure system east of the philippines that may turn into a tropical depression for the next day or so. looking out for a possible development with this system. meanwhile, in northern japan, we have a low pressure system bringing rain and some snow being reported in the highest peak of hokkaido. that is showing wintry anticipation, i guess. colder air is moving in aloft. that means clouds and showers for tokyo on friday with 25. 24 in seoul. southern china seeing more rainfall because of the typhoon. we are watching for odile. this is a tropical storm. earlier this week, it was a category 4 hurricane. it has weakened significantly. the problem is this is a slow-moving storm in an area that does not need to see a lot of rain in one period of time. major flooding as it moves to the north along

people in southern china and neighboring northern vietnam are feeling the effects of a powerful storm. here are the details. >> safety measures have been taken place, because of this system. it's already killed two people in the philippines and evacuation for 90,000 people across southern china already. people are already bringing their ships in for safety. this is likely to still pull into northern vietnam, and across southwestern china, and this is going to be a real heavy rainmaker. the gusts are also very high. 145 kilometers per hour. this is likely to bring really stormy conditions. also providing four-meter-high waves, even in the gulf of thailand. because this is the flow over the western coast of indochina peninsula. the amounts could top as much as 400 millimeters in localized areas of additional rainfall on top of what we already see, about 400 in hong kong which already closed trading in the morning and many businesses ac 400 is certainly enough to cause flooding and landslides. we'll keep a close eye on this. it's not just one system we're tracking, this is another system

. >>> a typhoon has hit china's southern most island. 90,000 people have been forced to leave their homes. the typhoon is now heading towards vietnamese president is in sri lanka for the first visit by a chinese leader in almost 30 years. bay >>> ghana is widely considered to be the most policely stable african nation, but it is battling a ailing economy. from the capitol, here is our report. >> reporter: daniel has been in business for 22 years. he and his wife import clothing and shoes from turkey and china. he makes his money in local currency, but has to pay for his goods in u.s. dollars. the city depreciated by about 40% against the dollar in the first eight months of this year. and it has had a huge impact on his business. >> it has affected me dearly. for 10,000, and now i'm taking 9,000 for the same 10,000 dollars. so you can imagine. >> reporter: and people are so frustrated that they have even taken to the streets in protest. everywhere you go, people are talking about the rising cost of living. fuel has gone up more than 50% so far this year, and the cost of basic goods is also rocketing. in this market, business is down

problems for this area because southern china has too much rainfall and now even more rain and strong winds will be coming into the area and affecting portions of vietnam and the eastern side of the indochina peninsula going through the next few days. now, elsewhere in asia, we are talking about high pressure that's bringing in some colder air aloft into japan while low pressure is feeding in some moisture, so, because of that, unstable weather is possible. we are looking at the possibility of some scattered showers for tokyo on tuesday with a high of 29. 27 in seoul. again, maybe some scattered showers. looking out for some rain again, hong kong and manila, and then the southwest monsoon brings scattered showers into bangkok and heavier rainfalls into chongqing. now, there's also a hurricane to talk about in baja, california. this system has already moved onshore and it's going to be a big problemmaker. i want to show you this particular imagery because you can see the clearly defined eye. it was a category four storm on sunday, transitioning into monday, making landfall that resist tense is weakening the system, but winds at 185 kilometers per hour a

southern most island yesterday. about 90,000 people were evacuated and dozens of flights had to be canceled. the storm is weakening though as it moves through vietnamalso being blamed for two deaths in the philippines. >>> several thousand firs in the western states are now battling 15 wildfires that are burning out of control. fierce winds have fueled a fire that raced through the small northern california town of weeds burning a church to the grounds and damaging or destroying 100 homes. 1500 people have been evacuated in the area and fire also knocked out power to the town. for awhile officials of officials had to close interstate five. that's the main highway between california and oregon. >>> one washington state town is trying to crack down on body odor. the town passed an ordinance banning certain behavior in public places. visitors to their city park city hall and even the library are for now prohibited from using obscene language, not wearing enough clothing and from having poor hygiene. city officials say the measure is necessary to protect the public from foul smells. >> the phillies play a late one in san diego tonight, a at least for u

. >>> the typhoon has hit china's most southern island. 90,000 people have been forced to leave their homes and seek shelter. the typhoon is now heading to vietnamon thor side of the world, tropical storm odile is springing storms to mexico. >> the winds are winding down so that is a good sign, but in terms of the amount of rain, we are looking at widespread flooding over the next few days. it's the strongest storm to hit the baja peninsula in over 100 years. you can see the huge massive cloud coming in. it's making its way up the spine of the peninsula, it will gradually push its way towards the southwestern corner of the united states. sustained winds of around 90 kilometers an hour. it will weaken smartly as it goes across the land. but in terms of the rain we are going to see copious amounts of rainfall coming in across the region over the next 24 to 36 hours or so. you can see the kind of damage those strong winds brought in, just through the course of sunday and monday. very, very strong winds. the equivalent of a category 3 storm. it did bring down power lines, street signs. it brought down a good deal of very, very heavy rain as well. an

vietnam war and watergate. he was in iowa in 1976 when a southerner made it a mandatory first stop for would-be presidents. >> thisd time on organization. that may help former governor jimmy carter. >> i worked with bruce every week when i anchored cnn's "late edition" the last word in sunday talk. >> it's easy to look around america and thing that it works pretty well. we are all somewhat free. so we have some freedom, some optimism, some hope. to reason to think we can rise in the world. >> he wrote so beautifully. it was a perfect way to end "late edition" every sunday. i loved hearing his essays and what he had to report. something i said back when bruce retired in 2006 holds true to this day. his voice was unique and wry with a perspective you could only get by covering politics for five decades. as one of our colleagues said if there were a journalist hall of fame, bruce morton would certainly be in it. bruce morton passed away at 83. our deepest, deepest condolences to his family. >> you can always follow us on twitter. tweet me @wolfblitzer. join us again on monday, 5:00 p.m. eastern. you can dvr the show

has hit china's southern most island. 90,000 people are forced to leave their homes in high-risk areas and seek shelter and dozens of flights have been cancelled and it's heading to vietname can get more on the typhoon from everton and the typhoon is getting week. >> plenty of rain to come in the system and it actually is still a typhoon and soon it will be a tropical storm so i would say in the next 3-4 hours it will be downgrade but heavy rain to come and this is a mass of cloud making its way across the south china seas to the gulf and have seen huge amounts of rainfall coming from the storm and sustained winds of 120 kilometers per hour and it's just about a category one hurricane on the scale. barely a typhoon at the moment. still strong and damaging winds a possibility. the system will make its way further west, northwest and interacted with the land and losing the strength in terms of the wind but not so in terms of the rainfall, plenty of heavy rain still coming in behind and 233 millimeters of rain coming down in only 24 hours, i think some of these areas across southern china will see 100-200 millimeters of rain over the next 24 hours and any consolation i can