, also a vietnam veteran. let me just end on this point with john lewis gattis, a very distinguished professor of history at yale university referred to by "new york times" as the deen of american cold war historians. and in 2004 he said historians now acknowledge that american counterinsurgency operations in vietnam were succeeding during the final years of that conflict. the problem was that support of the war had long since crumbled at home. we had a few responses to our letters inviting people to debate. and one of them -- whoops, that's not it. i didn't print it. i'm sorry to say. or else i didn't bring it. a professor at clemson wrote us back after -- we spelled out mythology. and he says nobody believes that stuff anymore. well, that was exactly the point we were trying to make. now, what went wrong? the peace movement was angry. it had got a lot of very liberal democrats elected in the elections of 1972, taking office in '73. they decided they didn't like vietnam, and in may of 1973 they passed a statu

left vietnam. as far as i know, he was in power. one would assume that vietnam would have pursued that agenda of world domination. it didn't turn out that way. it turned out that it went the way dave gordon describes it. what happened between then and now? >> part of the problem i think is that lays long rebalancing their own requirements. we need to realize that after the bifurcation of vietnam in 1954 where there are two entities, south and north vietnam, that and north vietnam leaders are making decisions about supporting the insurgency in the south to reunify the country in the aftermath of a long and bloody colonial conflict or anti-colonial conflict, and also build their own stable nation in the north. that they'reate having to constantly make choices between the building of a stable political community in the north and feeding and reinforcing the southern insurgency in the south. in the aftermath of the american war in 1975, that takes on a regional aspect. they now not only have to balance

we won the war with vietnam against north vietnam and also in cambodia. we won those wars on january the 23rd of 1972. president nixon made a speech in rhyme time saying the paris peace accords are going to be sign inside four days, they were signed on the 27th. and we got everything we wanted. now, this isn't just me talking, the north vietnamese have said in their memoirs we lost the war then. because what -- the paris peace accord said that if there's any violations -- i'm paraphrasing, but i'm telling you really what it is -- if there's any violations, we will supply south vietnam with everything they lose piece for piece. if they lose a bullet, we'll give them a bullet. if they lose a helicopter, we'll give them a helicopter. and it went into a whole list of things. but what we promised south vietnam was freedom. we used to bill of rights, particularly the first amendment as the instrumented 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 viet cong

why the obsession about vietnam?what was it about the war that so totally engaged this president. >> well, first off, it's wonderful to be here. i grew up watching during this period, and marve and cal and cole bernstein who was an undergraduate when i was at ohio state. the key thing for nixon in vietnam was he had an opportunity to get out. it was seen as kennedy and johnson's war. nixon had been vice president for dwight eisenhower in 1952. ike ran for president saying, i will go to korea. that was essentially ike's secret plan. i'm the supreme allied commander and i'll find a way out of this mess in korea. and sure enough, six months later, ike got us out of korea. nixon, on the tapes, admits i could have done that and maybe done the right thing for history. but he decides he's not going to give up on vietnam and he's going to increase the bombing. he wants to show the chinese that he could bomb the bejesus out of him. at one point, he tells kissenger, let the chinese think i'm mad. we've got to worry about taiwa

major adkins received the medal for his actions while serving during the vietnam war. army specialist sloat was awardrd his posthumously while serving as a machine gunner during vietnam. dr. sloat will accept the medal of honor on his brother's behalf. this is 25 minutes. >> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states. ♪[music]♪ >> let us pray. most high and gracious god, we pray today, if you will remind us of the value of sacrifice and how hero is a venable title because of the price paid by soldiers, like the two to be honored today, remembered by his persistent to defend his brothers, to never accept defeat and to never quit. and one who saved the lives of his friends by unselfishly giving up his own. these brave men living in death consecrate our history and our faith, the courage of our soldiers, the sacredness of our values, the strength of our nation. today we weave their actions into the fabric of our history as they served in the jungle midsts. we, who are the living, may we never forget what they did. the friends they lost, the family left behin

why to your mind do we need another piece on vietnam?> i tell you, when i first came up with the idea with mark samuels at pbs to do this film, i had the same reaction. i thought do we really need another film about vietnam? can i add anything new to the equation? what i found was that what was true for me in that instance, i think, is true for a lot of people who have not seen the film is that we think we know a lot about what happened during those final days but really i think what most of us are familiar with is the iconic image of the helicopter leaving from what we think is the embassy. it is not the embassy. that is one thing that you will learn in watching this film. there is so much incredible events that happened during that last 24 hours. i mean it's really an extraordinary phenomenon. it's a chapter of american history that almost nobody knows about. and so, i'm so thrilled to be able to share this film and, you know, what we uncovered in researching the film and developing it further was that as these events took place and it

during this period of the 1960s, north vietnam was one of our top signals. key interseptembers were those between the torpedo boats, who could do some real damage to us offshore. we had taken over for the french. we probably made a big mistake after world war ii by not recognizing the nationalists aspirations. there were some reasons we did that. france, we needed this part of nato in rebuilding europe against stalin and communist threat. so we came in on france's side. the japanese had beat them and taken over. for the vietnamese, t it was the japanese and the french. and then the french got beat, they got thrown out and we came in. we had supported the southerners. they knew in the late 1950 z, they would have lost. hoe chho chi minh had the highe debate. free elections are purely utilitarian. that was in retrospect. it seems to be a turning point. we were hearing that he was wanting to cut a deal with hanoi and we had a lot of rhetoric about the south is the freedom and the north is the tyranny and we've got to be there. there was a great book written abo

i have always been fascinated by vietnam. we have a lot to learn about vietnam. was interested in telling the story of the last days of vietnam in part because of the timeliness of it. in the midst of our withdrawal from iraq and afghanistan and questions that the film raises about our responsibilities to the people left behind. how do we exit a country gracefully? >> protect those on our side and the have risked their lives for us. >> exactly. as we were leaving iraq and afghanistan, looking back at this moment in history, there is a lot of parallels particularly with what we are seeing in iraq today. and what happened in saigon. >> you cannot have more drama than you have here. >> it's an extraordinary story. they are familiar with the iconic image of the other. the desperation of people trying to get out. very few people know the story beyond that or how we got to that point. this film really unfold in a quite dramatic manner showing the events during this final 24 hours. >> the film shows the final 24 hours? >> largely. it sets you up as to where we are in vi

the army of the republic of vietnam in their war against hoe chi min and the communist north.ext, 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 vietcong. 50 years ago on august 10th 1964 the situation in vietnam was transformed when lyndon johnson signed the resolution to grant the president broad powers 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 of 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

the president was only interested in vietnam. for example, in china, those reports gave a lot of indication of what direction we were going to take with china. people sort of overlooked it. >> yeah, i think it -- i think it is worth talking about for a little bit longer. this is the first time the administration had said publicly, and not in a boilerplate bureaucratized language, this is where we want to go. and kissinger and nixon and i know you are part of it winston, you would take for guys -- four guys and go to san clemente and create white papers for the ministration. >> one last introduction to this, although it did not get attention from the press and from the domestic audience that it should have, the foreign will it should have, the foreign audience understood. if you try to draft a document for kissinger, he always rejected the first draft. it was made inherently worthless. i was doing a section on indochina, and it was about 30 pages, this first draft. i did not even read it because i knew he would reject it. on page

union, and the ending of the vietnam war.there was an economic component, i might add. it was urgent. you did not have to worry about public policies, so all three of these issues lend themselves to delicate negotiations out of the public spotlight, so there is a lot of sensitivities with these three issues. therefore, it lent itself to the nixon-kissinger approach. we want to get into the secrecy issue at one point. from the outset of the ministration, it lent itself to white house control and secrecy. pluses and minuses. it was part of the reason that they went about diplomacy in this way. openingrespect to the of china, it is also important to recognize that nixon wrote an for thein october october 1967 issue of foreign affairs. he wrote it almost entirely by himself, along with ray price, pat buchanan, and richard whelan , and i participated in this as article really telegraphed the opening to china. nobody paid attention to it. it is quite cryptic. a afteralled "asi vietnam," and nixon calls for a series of summit meetin

have we begun to heal the wounds of vietnam. normally you're supposed to award the medal of honor within a few years, but going back, doing the research, finding these stories, how important is it? >> it's very important. until we get all the stories of all the people who were valorous and served, i don't think we can heal the wounds. over time, i think it's becoming increasingly difficult as the valor of these people fades into the recesses of our memory. it's interesting in talking to sergeant major adkins, it was almost impossible to get him to talk about himself at all. you just saw a very short part of the interview. it went on for quite a bit of time. i literally had to extract his story from him in little bits and pieces with a hammer and a tong and he was still very reluctant to talk about it. i've spoken to a lot of people who served in combat. doesn't matter if they received an award or didn't, what award they received. all of them will talk about the people they served with. they won't be taking about themselves. >> c

with regard to vietnam, i'll be honest, as i point out in my book, you know, i supported the vietnam as an editorial writer from 1962, supported kennedy in the missile crisis, and i think that the whole country -- at one point when johnson, maybe it was '65, but lyndon johnson had the support of 70% of the country, and the vietnam war was supported by 80% of the country. so i don't know with regard to vietnam, but i don't think khrushchev would have trifled with richard nixon the way he did with john f. kennedy. if you'll recall also brezhnev who we all met, brezhnev threatened in the yom kippur war, there were soviet airborne divisions moving toward their bases, their jumpoff bases, and there were soviet -- we were hearing, i don't know if it's true -- that soviet ships were coming through the dardanelles and some of them armed with nuclear weapons. and you saw nixon, nixon had an all-out airlift to save israel in that war. and it was a very tough time because that was, i was in the president's oval office just before the so-called saturday night massacre, and it was talking about r

air strike against north vietnam. operation rolling thunder was supposed to last eight weeks but went on for three years. president johnson opted for bombing north vietnam because he wanted to avoid the issue of u.s. grund troops. ultimately he -- ground troops. ultimately he committed more than 500,000 u.s. forces to the vietnam way. >> the military insulation in vietnam is the text book study of mission creep. is president obama going in danger of going down the same road. >> there is always the danger but we're in the position of two lessers. we have no good choices. we have to the one that is, the one with least risk and damage to us. going after the isil people is in fact in my judgment, the right decision. it doesn't mean that it is a great -- that syria will benefit from it. these are the poentsz to asad -- opponents to a government. how far is goes is to be determined. >> he is not looking to expand his empire beyond syria where isil is looking to expand and create. the comparison with president johnson. presi

, let alone refugees from vietnam.ost public opinion polls showed something like 70% of the population didn't favor the reception of refugees in large numbers. and it was accomplished lyrically largely because the then chairman of the relevant house subcommittee, congressman solarz brooklyn, was strongly in favor of the program. there was no opponent of it in the senate, and both the ford and carter administrations, particularly julia taft who is the secretary for refugees in the ford administration and later in the reagan administration, were very supportive of this development. is one diplomat has to be given credit for, that diplomat -- that diplomat would probably be holbrooke. but negroponte played an important role in giving congressional testimony. and negroponte's deputy, actually the assistant secretary for refugees later served as the deputy chief of mission under negroponte in honduras. with the end of the carter administration, negroponte served for a relatively short time as colin powell's deputy of the na

he said, i was all wrong on vietnamment we should never have gotten in there when i went over to vietnam i got the greatest brainwashing you've ever seen. and i was brainwashed by northwestern military and the american diplomats, and after four days "the new york times" picked up on it. romney says he has been brainwashed. it was not a good thing for his candidacy. and gene mccarthy, who became a friend of mine, was brutal on governor romney. he said in romney's case, a full brainwashing was not needed. [laughter] >> that a light rinse would have sufficed. but you have to -- this is brutal but you have to remember in those days, that is how tawf governor george romney had it in those days, to the point where we're rung against him and i'm feeling sorry for the guy. then we come up to 1968, which was a real year of tragedy. it was a year of real tragedy. most of the year, i believe, in american political history since the civil war. my friend, tom brokaw, wrote other book called "boom" about it. and other books have been written about it. you almost had to go through the era toker andance

but they ask, and riley so, what about vietnam?k of our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. their questions hit home and i knew i could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world of today, my own government. >> that was dr. king one year to the day before he was gunned down in memphis. in the lasttion year is in financial trouble. people are turning against him. what were his conversations? >> he was despond it. he was depressed. there were times he was admitted to the hospital for what they said was exhaustion. and he was exhaustion. you have everybody against you in on top of that, you're getting death threats every day. on top of that, he could feel the death angel hovering around him. he knew there was a bullet out there with his name on it. how do you get up every day and try to tell your truth when everything everybody -- but it ap

paris peace accords in 19 73 setting a stage for peace in vietnam. watergate happened, and the north vietnamese take advantage of our issues to invade the south and take the territory over at a rapid pace, creating the chaos in saigon. the situation was desperate. >> and you couched it well. the troops left. the u.s. troops were there. it was so chaotic, it was so out of control, unexpected from washington's perspective, that they said we just get the americans out and leave the vietnamese behind. that was the order coming from washington, and what our film documents what happens and how we got to that point and americans and vietnamese that are against the policy, to save vietnamese and get them out of the country, which is going against the u.s. orders, doing something that was illegal, costing their jobs at the least, and their lives. >> why haven't the stories of heroism been tomb. i heard the stories of the oscar schindler of vietnam, someone that risking everything to save others. here you bring out american officials that pretty much ignored a

it was over the vietnam -- >> 1970. >> okay. over the vietnam war. but it became more and more militant as the years passed, the early '70s. in 1970 you declared a state of war against the u.s. government and urged your comrades, as you call them, to be more violent. >> there's no way to be committed to nonviolence in the middle of the most violent society that history's ever created. i'm not committed to nonviolence in any way. >> why was more violence the answer? >> you know, i wouldn't argue that more violence was the answer -- >> but those are your people. >> what she said is i'm not committed to nonviolence. >> well, you were upping the violent rhetoric as well. >> there's no question our rhetoric was outstripped a lot of what was going on. there's no question. but here's the reality, i was arrested for opposing the war in vietnam in 1965. over the next three years -- five years, i was arrested many times in demonstrations and actions sitting in nondraft boards, all nonviolent all in attempt to bring a screaming warning that we were killing 6,00

at the vietnam wall bruce leshan, wusa9. >> last days in vietnam opens tonight at the e street cinema downtown d.c. >>> coming up topper says you might want to grab a poncho for tomorrow's terps game, but what about sunday? first alert forecast is up next. >>> you know how your former university keeps calling you up asking for money? this is what they are hoping will happen. a university of maryland student brendan reed is giving his school 31 million bucks, the largest single gift in university history. that money goes toward construction of a computer science building. reed is ceo and co-founder of a company occular vcr that develops wearable virtual facial wear technology. it was recently bought for about $2 billion. >>> a texas middle schooler has a passion for technology and helping others. >> reporter: kids seem to have a income for new technology, but 12-year-old -- a knack for new technology, but 12-year-old dillon verchetti really gets it. he already has two patents. the save me app turns any power button on an android phone into a panic button. >> all i'd have to do is reach

but we can't -- i can't know with regard to vietnam? honest, is a point out in my book, i supported the vietnam war as an editorial writer from 1962, supported kennedy in the missile crisis, and i think that the whole country at one point when johnson maybe was 65, but lyndon johnson had the support of 70% of the country and the vietnam war was supported by 80% of the country. so i don't know with regard to vietnam, but i don't think khrushchev would have trifled with rich yard nixn the way he did with john f. kennedy. and you recall, brezhnev threatened in the yom kippur war -- there soviet airbornes moving to bases and soviet ships were coming, and some of them armed with nuclear weapons. you saw nixon had an all-out airlift to save israel. it was a very tough time. i was in the president's oval office just before the so-called saturday night massacre, talking about richardson coming in. i was in the oval office and richardson was outside and nixon said there's no way i can be defied by a member of my own cabinet when you have russian

i've always been fascinated by vietnam, and i think we have a lot to learn from vietnam. i was particularly interested in telling this story about the the last days in vietnam. i think in part because of the timeliness of it in the midst of our withdrawal from iraq and afghanistan and the questions i think that the film raises about our responsibilities to the people left behind, how do we exit a country gracefully? >> rose: and protect those who have been on our side and who have risked their lives for us. >> yes, exactly. and so those questions were in my mind as we were leaving iraq and afghanistan and looking back at this moment in history, i feel that there are a lot of parallels, particularly with what we're seeing out of iraq today and what happened inside -- >> you cannot have more drama than you have here. >> you know, it's an extraordinary story. i think a lot of people are familiar with the iconic image of the helicopter with the-- going from the embassy. it's not actually the embassy. and the desperation of people trying to get out. but very few people know th

he served in the vietnam war and you just heard the amazing story of his heroics.ident obama also aof prod the awarding of the honor to alonzo h. curbing for gallantry in action on the battle of gettysburg, july 3, 1863. first lieutenant alonzo h. curbing will receive the medal of honor posthumously for his actionser can serving as commanding officer battery a, artillery brigade, second core, army of the pat he distinguishet an armed enemy in gettysburg, pennsylvania, july 3, 1863. additional details on the award to first lieutenant curbing will be announced separately. >>> well, in the meantime, a lot of other news to get to today on the real story. i hope you had a great weekend. i'm gretchen carlson. welcome to the show. >>> western leaders vowing to pursue isis with new fervor now after that bea heading of british aid worker, david haines. the execution video prompting a swift and passionate response from the uk government. prime minister david cameron stressing support for u.s. air strikes against the islamic militants he calls monsters. meanwhile, here at hom

she's the director of the film, a great documentary, "last days in vietnam." and without giving anything away, we lose. we lose. [laughter] but first, famous naughty bits. >> the f.b.i. is investigating the photo hacking that targeted hollywood celebrities. >> dozens of nude and risque photos posted. >> this targeted everyone from an oscar winner to music superstars and models. >> jon: no star was off limits. yeah, that's right. [cheering and applause] [laughter] those were personal pictures that she took for tramp's birthday, and i for one am upset. how the hell did a hacker steel private photographs? to find out how this was done, you got to go to the experts. >> no one knows exactly who did this or exactly how those photos were obtained. >> it is not clear who hacked the photos. >> who uploaded those photos. >> who posted the photos? >> we know the data made it on to phones, and we know the phones stored the photographs. what we don't know is what happened next. [laughter] >> jon: why are you on my television? once again i leave watching the news somehow kn

. >> speaking on vietnam's independence day.e said he wants to further the good will with what he calls separation light at the end of the tunnel. he wants other veterans to encourage the u.s. to step up its effort so the leftovers of war can be gone from vietnam within a decade. >> we owe it to the vietnamese people, and we owe it to our veterans and my friends who were killed in vietnam, and in respect to their memory, we owe to them it help rebuild the country. >> in san francisco, johnathan bloom, abc7 news. >>> residents in hawaii are on alert as lava from a volcano continues to slowly approach homes on the big island. it's flowing from a vent that opened at the kiloaya volcano june 27th. it's burning a path through woods, to homes northeast of the volcano. right now it's less than a mile from one subdivision. about 8200 people live in the threatened area. kiloaha has erupted continuously since 1983. though it's rare when vents open to spew the lava. >>> the national weather service is warning residents in southern californ

many of them in vietnam itself.bc7 news reporter johnathan bloom spoke with an american veteran whose mission is to clean up what the war left behind. >> reporter: they are the remnants of war, cluster bombs dropped an vietnam forces. >> they estimate 10% did not detonate, so when they fell, 40 years later they are exploding and name people. >> chuck a veteran of the war now living in vietnam. his mission to clean up what is left behind. >> the real goal is making vietnam safe and that's different from cleaning up every bomb in mind. >> with his project renewed, that means teaching the vietnamese how to deal with the american bombs. but there's another threat. >> it's the most toxic substance known to man. >> ascent orange was a chemical the u.s. dropped on thick vietnamese jungles. >> it was designed to defoliate the trees and expose the vietnamese so we could attack them. >> known to sicken thousands of soldiers, it still affects the vietnamese. >> it also sickens those, they have been disabled and born with terri

the army of the republic of vietnam in their war against homey minute and the communist north.ext 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 vietcong. 50 years ago, on august 10th, 19 of 4, 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, united states army advisers in vietnam have undergone a variety of experigoet learned much about the complexities of guerilla warfare in southeast asia. working through mag, these advisers have increased the number to more than 12,000, each is assigned to a specific activity or unit of the army of the republic of vietnam, commonly referred to as arvin, where his chief duties are to make certain that u.s.çtt equipt is used and maintained properly. and to teach by lecture, demonstration and by setting

secret negotiations on vietnam. he's got these feelers and kissinger is making these secret trips to china. the russians are angry. nixon is bombing north vietnam right before the russian summit. all these things are going on at the same time that all the planning for watergate is going on, and so, i mean, it's real easy to absolve nixon of not keeping tighter rein on the boys at the committee to re-elect because so much big stuff was going on. and then he made the fatally flawed decision not to send them all to the grand jury but to try to cover it up. >> leon is next, philadelphia. >> caller: i just have a question for the author. in your opinion, given the partisan warfare that's going on in washington, i trace it back to watergate because of the fact is republicans were mad at democrats and wanted to get even with democrats for bringing down nixon. ultimately the hatred led to them trying to impeach bill clinton and i see a lot of that hatred towards president obama. >> i would agree to only a slight extent. wat

that very day was the first day in vietnam. i was concerned because my little brother was with the 101st airborne in vietnam. but in that month, they dominated goodness. there is a picture of richard nixon he announced. one column in "the new york times" committee columns in those days in the four color photograph is of the saigon police chief shooting a fellow at the head of the terrorists would come in and was murdered people. the photo, but that is the beginning of tag here. that didn't february also have been massacred rain. 3000 were killed. viacom and the north vietnamese were murdering our loyal to the saigon government, working with the americans. before february bissau, governor bob quick to raise. again, i was with great chapin. i got a call from a friend of mine and he was covering romney. he said romney is dropping out this afternoon. they were at the littletown sure to come into the reds room. ron is going to drop out this afternoon. to journalism school is recovering. so mike wallace at which you have to say about

the vietnam war the first we lost.another way to look at it it there was a terrible loss of the cold war a huge battle lost just like world war ii but we won the cold war. given human history the sad fact is in retrospect we should not have done this or that to make the mistakes but retrying to do right the cold war with us suppose it democracy that they cannot stick to it like dictatorships have even though we had ragtimes in the '70s especially after vietnam but we won the cold war ronald reagan had the vision to see we don't have to have a stalemate but we could have a victory and we got that. [applause] >> if you have a distinction between reagan's foreign policy or johnson or george w. bush? >> in terms of foreign policy reagan was seen as strong put in missiles in germany that did not prevent the soviets from intimidating western europe been sent troops to grenada the first time a communist regime was actually overthrown. even though a small operation and sent a signal to the world the wes was becoming a major pl

sergeant sloat for his actions as a machine gunnerer during vietnam. william sloet will accept on his brother's behalf. ♪ ♪ ♪ >>> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states. [ "hail to the chief" ] ♪ >>> let us pray. most high and gracious god we pray today that you remind us of the value of sacrifice. how hero is a venerable title, the price paid by soldiers like the two we honor today. remembered by persistence to defend his brother to never accept defeat and never quit. one who saved the lives of his friends by selfishly giving up his own. these brave men living and dead consecrate our history and faith, the courage of our soldiers, sacredness of values, strength of the nation. today we weave their actions into the fabric of history as we served in the jungle mists in the kasan lowlands. may we never forget what they did, the friends they lost, the family they left behind. we ask you to grant these, your holy name, amen. >> please be seated. good afternoon. welcome to the white house. more than four decades ago in early 1970, an americ

but in the spring of 1966, benny was just 32 years old on his second tour in vietnam. he and his fellow green berets were at an isolated camp along the trail. a huge force attack ed at a tim it was nearly impossible to kill without being wounded or killed but benny ran into enemy fire again and again to retrieve supplies and ammo to carry the wounded to safety, to man the mortar pit holding off wave after wave of enemy assaults. three times explosions blasted him out of that mortar pit and three times he returned. i have to be honest in a battle and daring escape that lasted four days, bennie performed so many acts of bravery, we don't have time to talk about all of them. let me just mention three. on the first day, bennie was helping load a wounded american on a helicopter. a vietnamese jumped on the hilo trying to escape the battle and aimed his weapon at the soldier ready to shoot. bennie stepped in places himself in the line of fire helping to save his wounded comrade. at another point in the battle, bennie and a few other soldiers were trapped in the mortar pit co

still become come, on a high in vietnam. come, on a high in vietnam.ting onen this rally that we have been witnessing in vietnam. let's have a look at some of the investment opportunities and bring in a chief executive of vietnam investment management. he is normally in ho chi minh city. is drivingwhat things? where is this coming from? and does this rally have legs? >> we have seen a huge increase in turnover, and that is, to a great extent, it has been funded by margin finance from the brokers and the banks. comeositivity has initially, i think, from the fact that the improvements in the macroeconomic picture over the last three years or so, with inflation having come down -- gdp, as well. >> yes, and this is low for vietnam with a historic view, but it is still better than most places. as aople look at vietnam garment making area, but it is really more than that, and they have gone up the value chain, haven't they? yes, there is an export menu and someelectronics, were responsible for 16% of the vietnam exports. so, definitely, electronics is the co

. >> it was 1975 and the vietnam war the way the world knew it was or where. so those that still lived in the mountains where my mother and father had been living, the communist government that came to government in 1975 declared a death warrant against the hmong. in may 1975, the newspaper of the parties people had announced the agenda. it is necessary for the hmong minority. the north vietnamese allies began a systematic campaign to kill off the hmong who believed in the tenets of democracy and the nonbelieving communists rule. while many have been killed, the remnants of their fight remain today. and their mothers and their fathers and their sons and their neighbors, the secret war, the biggest covert operation in cia history and the ramifications that would tear into the history of a people. but the winds of war and death all over the world. legend says that we come from siberia a long time ago. but a lot of historians agree that we came from china. my family is from chennai that integrated to laos and the chinese are doing and so our family is fleeting to

forces to the vietnam war. >> lyndon johnson's military escalation in vietnam is the textbook study ofission creep. is president obama in danger of going down that same road? >> mort? >> sure there is always that danger. but we are in a position i would like to describe as the evil of two lessers. we have no good choices here. so we have to pick the one that is most in our interest and the one with least risk and least damage to us and going after the isil people is, in fact in my judgment, the right decision. it doesn't mean syria is a great, syria is going to benefit from that, because these are the opponents to assad's government and assad is not exactly someone you want want to send to a christmas party. having said that, he is still not as bad as the isil people and not as threatening to our interests from the region. that is why we are doing it. how far it goes is not to be determined. >> and not an expansionist he is not looking to expand where isil is looking to expand. >> i want to say the comparison with lyndon johnson, president obama does not have the resources that lyndon

again, like vietnam, the 20/20 hindsight as mr. d'souza has stated would have been -- we did not have weapons of mass destruction as people thought that we did and saddam thought that he did and probably would not have interteened if you had -- intervened if you had 20/20 hindsight. >> general meese, are you unaware of the libertarians and others -- general mace, are you saying nobody had a foresight of what would go wrong? >> there were a lot of people who had foresight including those in the military who debated this significantly. my boss, my division commander, general shinseki -- >> oh, he's done a great job lately. [laughter] >> thank you, general. >> okay. thank you very much. >> thanks very much, general. you may step down. [applause] would you like to call one more witness to the stand, mr. d'souza? >> i call mr. steve forbes. [applause] >> mr. forbes, i have here a copy of a soon to be best-selling book, money: how the destruction of the dollar threatens the probably in economy and what we can do about it. do you swear to