troops stationed in vietnam. there was a lot of drug use there was a lot of murder of american officers by american soldiers there were a lot of units who refuse orders to go out and buy they said no we're not going to fight. in the united states meanwhile the movement. against the war in vietnam was gathering steam. there were mass protests antiwar rallies and the famed march on the pentagon organized by peace activists. later many vietnam war veterans joined the protests themselves former fighters would drop the medals they'd been awarded in vietnam in front of the u.s. congress. before the war i always thought i wanted to win a lot of medals i wanted to have a lot of decorations but afterwards i realized that they they don't mean anything they're not that important. i don't i don't i never kept the medal i never. i never did anything about it coochie is a district twenty kilometers from hoochie minh city formerly known as saigon ex marine greg played in. a form of vietnamese guerilla. nearly forty years ago th

in vietnam u.s. troops stop short of nothing in a bid to achieve their objectives if they burned the jungle that served as a hideouts of vietnamese. but they also used a chemical weapon called agent orange to smoke them to the fullest. i just assumed. i was right and that we needed to be here but after. i started to change my mind. about it i still. couldn't just leave. the. new trees to. destroy the forest nearly forty years ago. but the chemical weapon has had a sting effect on the people. in many villages there are many with birth defects these people were born. but the effects were passed to them genetically many years happened to be in the age and. these children lived in a special village near there under the constant. and psychologists. has been here for more than ten years she only visits her parents during the holidays. when i was at primary school children often teased me and it was certain for me to join the community and to play with friends. to be a doctor when she grows up so that she c

troops started to leave vietnam. mean often brings his grandchildren here when the war was over he served in the vietnamese army for a further twenty years retiring as a general now he writes his memoirs about how his battalion took part in resisting the last american air raid. happened right here. because her lawyer was subjected to very heavy. and the wreckage of this aircraft is a good illustration of the defeat suffered by the united states here. unlike his vietnamese counterpart sergeant nicholai kolesnik decided against continuing his military career. after his return from vietnam nicholai left the armed forces to become an electrical engineer but he meets several times a year with his comrades in arms who served with him in vietnam. the former u.s. marine greg klavan returned to vietnam in one nine hundred eighty six he makes a living by giving private english lessons when he left vietnam off to being wounded in the war it never occurred to him that some day he might come back let alone share a table with viet

written by a vietnam veteran, it has been called the definitive vietnam novel of airtimes, and the hottest new novel in america today. extraordinary given that it is his first book. he started writing it in 1977 and it has taken years to get published. he was awarded two purple hearts. and he describes the terror of combat in a hopeless war. >> the jungle was not evil. it was in different. so, too, was the world. >> he joins me. why do you think a novel about vietnam's strike such accord in 2010? >> well, there are probably several reasons. one is i think the baby boomers are getting to the point where they will start reflecting in their history. i hate to think i wrote a book about my own history. but i also think they were engaged in a war that has a very eerie parallels to vietnam. there are so many parallels. that also struck a chord in this century. >> do you think a lot of americans did not want to hear about vietnam, and now, as you suggest, they're in a more reflective mood about the climate because of this act is up today? >> oh, yes, i think that is absolutely true. i think ameri

but vietnam, it's hard to say despite vietnam. you know, someone used that line with john kevin galbraith and that's like saying switzerland would be flat without the alps. so. >> woodruff: but vietnam was what -- >> vietnam was his presidency and it was, he was wrong. he was just wrong. he was a man who worried terribly about his manhood, about being courageous. one of his airedes told me that-- aides told me that the-- the aide was leaving and he wanted a nice warm letter from johnson when he left the white house. and skeed johnson's secretary how am i going to get the nice letter. and she said when you send in your resignation letter praise his courage. the guy sent in the letter and he got a very warm letter in response. >> woodruff: finally charlie peters, any lessons from lyndon johnson for this current president, president obama and the enormous challenges he is facing? >> well, i think with afghanistan you have to look at vietnam and say there were many, many arguments for being in vietnam, for staying in vietnam that the

my government that is necessary for america to vietnam there was a lot of drug abuse the lot of the murder of american officers by american soldiers there were a lot of. them to go out and buy. before the war i always thought i wanted to win a lot of medals and they have a lot of desperation. but afterwards i realize that they they don't mean anything. that importance. i don't i don't i never kept the medal. the united states of america is waging war within its own army. jono advantage is on no one side. and human losses are quite significant. is it possible to win the war against sexual assault in the u.s. armed forces sex in the army on r g. what about. this is all seen wrong sounds promised in the news of the regime the generation of the twenty eighteen twenty twenty team. world cup finals if it's a would it be the tournament inspects. scrutinising the bid which pledges stage of the a lot of football stadia full of country. private security companies in afghanistan have been awarded to and operations within. the president's decision is expected to be that distance from naysay which reli

both becoming one became the vietnam vietnam became a disaster for the vietnamese people two to three million of them perished and a smaller disaster but a considerable disaster for the united states the same thing is happening in afghanistan the same thing happened in iraq. i would have thought the closest analogy and your readers from your viewers would appreciate this as with the. the soviet invasion of afghanistan in one nine hundred seventy nine because the enemy is pretty much the same the so-called enemy of the resistance is the side. and. you know that. the world's other superpower could not. subdue afghanistan in ten years. surely the most in can doesn't lessen for the walls. surviving superpower which is trying to do the same thing talk to me about america's increasingly complicated relationship with iran that are now they've refused to rule out sanctions and that's talk of minute checks and what do you think this is a nation to iran's nuclear program are wrong. doesn't threaten anybody it doesn't have a nuclear bomb if you look through all the international atomic agency re

vietnam plans to ask foreign firms to build two plants. naoshima said japan is ready to cooperate in every possible way. zun replied he gives high marks to the safety of japan's nuclear power plant technology. after the meeting naoshima told reporters he was able to make a good impression on vietnam. russia won an earlier bid to build two other nuclear plants in vietnam. >>> myanmar's pro-democracy leader aung san suu kyi has suggested that her supporters who want to vote for her party could refrain from voting instead in the general election. now, her party, the national league for democracy, has decided to boycott the polls, scheduled for november 7th. in a statement released on wednesday, aung san suu kyi said the public should show interest in the election. it will be the country's first election in 20 years. she said nld supporters would not have to compromise and vote for another party. the nld has -- or was disbanded earlier this year after the military government introduced a new law. it effectively barred aung san suu kyi from run

both becoming one became the vietnam vietnam became a disaster for the vietnamese people two to three million of them perished and a smaller disaster but a considerable disaster for the united states the same thing is happening in afghanistan the same thing happened in iraq talk to me about america's increasingly complicated relationship with iran there are now that they've refused to rule out sanctions and that's talk of minute checks and what do you think this is a nation to iran's nuclear program or on. doesn't threaten anybody it doesn't have a nuclear bomb. if you look through all the international atomic agency reports of the last seventy is they saying basically the same thing constantly go she should with iran in the in the midst of this iran wrote to the iranian government wrote to the american administration and put a series of proposals they didn't even get a reply. a rom was. under the shah iran was a pillar of the american network the american empire if you like in the middle east that was swept away in nine hundred seventy nine when there was an islamic revolution and it

invasion afghanistan is no different than the vietnam war will be these thoughts and more in our exclusive interview with veteran left wing journalist john pilger that's coming up next. today i'm in london speaking to joan poll just veteran journalist on the document she writes her he started his career cheering the vietnam war john paul just thanks very much for talking to now let's talk about more media in general first if you don't mind recently the website wiki leaks published tens of thousands of documents relating to the afghanistan war what do you think that is the biggest impact is that modern technology has had journalism well i think the wiki leaks exposed is. look like they might change journalism altogether if not change or wake it up. because what we think leaks has done is what journalists should have done. you know here here is this dreadful litany of years of of disaster and killing in afghanistan and i'm in the wrong. and i don't think we've gotten a sense and they've got a sense of the disaster but i don't think we've got a sense of the real. the the political disaster th

campaign in afghanistan is no different to the vietnam war for our exclusive interview coming up next. today i'm in london speaking to veteran journalist alan document he started his career chairing the vietnam war john thanks very much for talking to now let's talk about morton media in general first if you don't mind recently the website wiki leaks published tens of thousands of documents relating to the afghanistan war what do you think that is the biggest impacts that modern technology has had journalism well i think the wiki leaks exposed. look like they might change journalism altogether if not change. because what is wrong is what journalists should have done. you know here is this dreadful litany. of of disaster and killing in afghanistan and iraq. and i don't think we've. gotten a sense certainly we've got a sense of the disaster but i don't think we've got a sense of the real. the the political disaster the the behind the the human disaster in afghanistan that's what we call leaks is has given us. i think it says to journalists. separate yourself separate yourselves from the

when they were older and i think that is part of the issue here is that the vietnam veteran population was significantly older because of the draft because it wasn't exclusively a you might as a career would be career military guys who come straight out of high school to the military who know their market will job skills or experience what it's your only experience on your resume is your veteran status if a lot of employers hear p.t.s.d. or potential issues with that or if yours are assume might get called back up you're a lot less likely to get hired i think that's one of the major roles that veterans are facing and i definitely my i guess when i have an employer making a liability you know i don't ask you something because in america everyone always says support our troops you know it's unpatriotic if you if you don't and yet at the same time do you feel like that perhaps is only rhetoric that it doesn't really follow through to when these troops actually come home from those wars. well i think the sentiment is there among the broader american population but they treat it like any ot

afghanistan just like nixon did not want to take responsibility for what he knew was a military setback in vietnam i know that's a current argument that the us military may have leaked this in order to blame pakistan or to blame others i don't think that's really what's going on i think that there are voices within the u.s. military just as there were doing in vietnam who have become disillusioned with the war and are releasing these documents to paint a picture that tells something quite different from the official version with the hope that the american people will as they did during vietnam become opponents of the war and help change the policy i understand the point of view of the pakistani government because the americans are blaming pakistan for every setback and putting them and credible pressure at the very same time they use drone airplanes to go and kill pakistani civilians as if it doesn't matter as if they have every right to do it but i don't think that's what really motivated the leakers the whistleblowers who generated this cache of documents i think it's because they want the word

speaking to jonah hill just veteran journalist documentary writer who started his career during the vietnam war john paul just thanks very much for talking to now let's talk about more media in general for us if you don't mind recently the website wiki leaks published tens of thousands of documents relating to the afghanistan war what do you think that is the biggest impacts that modern technology has had journalism well i think the wiki leaks exposed is. look like they might change journalism altogether if not change of wake it up. because what we see leaks is dong is what journalists should have done. you know here here is this dreadful litany of years of of disaster and killing in afghanistan done in iraq. and i don't think we've gotten a sense and they've got a sense of the disaster but i don't think we've got a sense of the real. the the political disaster the the behind the the human disaster in afghanistan that's what we call leaks of this has given us. i think it says to journalists. separate us separate your souls from the word of authority and start becoming independent it's an ex