Podcasts about Viet Cong

Welcome to Original Jurisdiction, the latest legal publication by me, David Lat. You can learn more about Original Jurisdiction by reading its About page, and you can email me at davidlat@substack.com. This is a reader-supported publication; you can subscribe by clicking here.Yesterday, Southern California Edison (SCE), the utility whose power lines may have started the devastating Eaton Fire, announced its Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program. Under the program, people affected by the fire can receive hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in compensation, in a matter of months rather than years—but in exchange, they must give up their right to sue.It should come as no surprise that SCE, in designing the program, sought the help of Kenneth Feinberg. For more than 40 years, often in the wake of tragedy or disaster, Feinberg has helped mediate and resolve seemingly intractable crises. He's most well-known for how he and his colleague Camille Biros designed and administered the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. But he has worked on many other headline-making matters over the years, including the Agent Orange product liability litigation, the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Trust, the multidistrict litigation involving Monsanto's Roundup weed killer—and now, of course, the Eaton Fire.How did Ken develop such a fascinating and unique practice? What is the most difficult aspect of administering these giant compensation funds? Do these funds represent the wave of the future, as an alternative to (increasingly expensive) litigation? Having just turned 80, does he have any plans to retire?Last week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ken—the day after his 80th birthday—and we covered all these topics. The result is what I found to be one of the most moving conversations I've ever had on this podcast.Thanks to Ken Feinberg for joining me—and, of course, for his many years of service as America's go-to mediator in times of crisis.Show Notes:* Kenneth Feinberg bio, Wikipedia* Kenneth Feinberg profile, Chambers and Partners* L.A. Fire Victims Face a Choice, by Jill Cowan for The New York TimesPrefer reading to listening? For paid subscribers, a transcript of the entire episode appears below.Sponsored by:NexFirm helps Biglaw attorneys become founding partners. To learn more about how NexFirm can help you launch your firm, call 212-292-1000 or email careerdevelopment@nexfirm.com.Three quick notes about this transcript. First, it has been cleaned up from the audio in ways that don't alter substance—e.g., by deleting verbal filler or adding a word here or there to clarify meaning. Second, my interviewee has not reviewed this transcript, and any errors are mine. Third, because of length constraints, this newsletter may be truncated in email; to view the entire post, simply click on “View entire message” in your email app.David Lat: Welcome to the Original Jurisdiction podcast. I'm your host, David Lat, author of a Substack newsletter about law and the legal profession also named Original Jurisdiction, which you can read and subscribe to at davidlat.substack.com. You're listening to the eighty-fourth episode of this podcast, recorded on Friday, October 24.Thanks to this podcast's sponsor, NexFirm. NexFirm helps Biglaw attorneys become founding partners. To learn more about how NexFirm can help you launch your firm, call 212-292-1000 or email careerdevelopment@nexfirm.com. Want to know who the guest will be for the next Original Jurisdiction podcast? Follow NexFirm on LinkedIn for a preview.I like to think that I've produced some good podcast episodes over the past three-plus years, but I feel that this latest one is a standout. I'm hard-pressed to think of an interview that was more emotionally affecting to me than what you're about to hear.Kenneth Feinberg is a leading figure in the world of mediation and alternative dispute resolution. He is most well-known for having served as special master of the U.S. government's September 11th Victim Compensation Fund—and for me, as someone who was in New York City on September 11, I found his discussion of that work profoundly moving. But he has handled many major matters over the years, such as the Agent Orange product liability litigation to the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster Victim Compensation Fund. And he's working right now on a matter that's in the headlines: the California wildfires. Ken has been hired by Southern California Edison to help design a compensation program for victims of the 2025 Eaton fire. Ken has written about his fascinating work in two books: What Is Life Worth?: The Unprecedented Effort to Compensate the Victims of 9/11 and Who Gets What: Fair Compensation after Tragedy and Financial Upheaval. Without further ado, here's my conversation with Ken Feinberg.Ken, thank you so much for joining me.Ken Feinberg: Thank you very much; it's an honor to be here.DL: We are recording this shortly after your 80th birthday, so happy birthday!KF: Thank you very much.DL: Let's go back to your birth; let's start at the beginning. You grew up in Massachusetts, I believe.KF: That's right: Brockton, Massachusetts, about 20 miles south of Boston.DL: Your parents weren't lawyers. Tell us about what they did.KF: My parents were blue-collar workers from Massachusetts, second-generation immigrants. My father ran a wholesale tire distributorship, my mother was a bookkeeper, and we grew up in the 1940s and ‘50s, even the early ‘60s, in a town where there was great optimism, a very vibrant Jewish community, three different synagogues, a very optimistic time in American history—post-World War II, pre-Vietnam, and a time when communitarianism, working together to advance the collective good, was a prominent characteristic of Brockton, and most of the country, during the time that I was in elementary school and high school in Brockton.DL: Did the time in which you grow up shape or influence your decision to go into law?KF: Yes. More than law—the time growing up had a great impact on my decision to give back to the community from which I came. You've got to remember, when I was a teenager, the president of the United States was John F. Kennedy, and I'll never forget because it had a tremendous impact on me—President Kennedy reminding everybody that public service is a noble undertaking, government is not a dirty word, and especially his famous quote (or one of his many quotes), “Every individual can make a difference.” I never forgot that, and it had a personal impact on me and has had an impact on me throughout my life. [Ed. note: The quotation generally attributed to JFK is, “One person can make a difference, and everyone should try.” Whether he actually said these exact words is unclear, but it's certainly consistent with many other sentiments he expressed throughout his life.]DL: When you went to college at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, what did you study?KF: I studied history and political science. I was very interested in how individuals over the centuries change history, the theory of historians that great individuals articulate history and drive it in a certain direction—for good, like President Kennedy or Abraham Lincoln or George Washington, or for ill, like Adolf Hitler or Mussolini. And so it was history that I really delved into in my undergraduate years.DL: What led you then to turn to law school?KF: I always enjoyed acting on the stage—theater, comedies, musicals, dramas—and at the University of Massachusetts, I did quite a bit of that. In my senior year, I anticipated going to drama school at Yale, or some other academic master's program in theater. My father gave me very good advice. He said, “Ken, most actors end up waiting on restaurant tables in Manhattan, waiting for a big break that never comes. Why don't you turn your skills on the stage to a career in the courtroom, in litigation, talking to juries and convincing judges?” That was very sound advice from my father, and I ended up attending NYU Law School and having a career in the law.DL: Yes—and you recount that story in your book, and I just love that. It's really interesting to hear what parents think of our careers. But anyway, you did very well in law school, you were on the law review, and then your first job out of law school was something that we might expect out of someone who did well in law school.KF: Yes. I was a law clerk to the chief judge of New York State, Stanley Fuld, a very famous state jurist, and he had his chambers in New York City. For one week, every six or seven weeks, we would go to the state capitol in Albany to hear cases, and it was Judge Fuld who was my transition from law school to the practice of law.DL: I view clerking as a form of government service—and then you continued in service after that.KF: That's right. Remembering what my father had suggested, I then turned my attention to the courtroom and became an assistant United States attorney, a federal prosecutor, in New York City. I served as a prosecutor and as a trial lawyer for a little over three years. And then I had a wonderful opportunity to go to work for Senator Ted Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington and stayed with him for about five years.DL: You talk about this also in your books—you worked on a pretty diverse range of issues for the senator, right?KF: That's right. For the first three years I worked on his staff on the Senate Judiciary Committee, with some excellent colleagues—soon-to-be Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyer was with me, noted litigator David Boies was in the office—and for the first three years, it was law-related issues. Then in 1978, Senator Kennedy asked me to be his chief of staff, and once I went over and became his chief of staff, the issues of course mushroomed. He was running for president, so there were issues of education, health, international relations—a wide diversity of issues, very broad-based.DL: I recall that you didn't love the chief of staff's duties.KF: No. Operations or administration was not my priority. I loved substance, issues—whatever the issues were, trying to work out legislative compromises, trying to give back something in the way of legislation to the people. And internal operations and administration, I quickly discovered, was not my forte. It was not something that excited me.DL: Although it's interesting: what you are most well-known for is overseeing and administering these large funds and compensating victims of these horrific tragedies, and there's a huge amount of administration involved in that.KF: Yes, but I'm a very good delegator. In fact, if you look at the track record of my career in designing and administering these programs—9/11 or the Deepwater Horizon oil spill or the Patriots' Day Marathon bombings in Boston—I was indeed fortunate in all of those matters to have at my side, for over 40 years, Camille Biros. She's not a lawyer, but she's the nation's expert on designing, administering, and operating these programs, and as you delve into what I've done and haven't done, her expertise has been invaluable.DL: I would call Camille your secret weapon, except she's not secret. She's been profiled in The New York Times, and she's a well-known figure in her own right.KF: That is correct. She was just in the last few months named one of the 50 Women Over 50 that have had such an impact in the country—that list by Forbes that comes out every year. She's prominently featured in that magazine.DL: Shifting back to your career, where did you go after your time in the Senate?KF: I opened up a Washington office for a prominent New York law firm, and for the next decade or more, that was the center of my professional activity.DL: So that was Kaye Scholer, now Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer. What led you to go from your career in the public sector, where you spent a number of your years right out of law school, into so-called Biglaw?KF: Practicality and financial considerations. I had worked for over a decade in public service. I now had a wife, I had three young children, and it was time to give them financial security. And “Biglaw,” as you put it—Biglaw in Washington was lucrative, and it was something that gave me a financial base from which I could try and expand my different interests professionally. And that was the reason that for about 12 years I was in private practice for a major firm, Kaye Scholer.DL: And then tell us what happened next.KF: A great lesson in not planning too far ahead. In 1984, I got a call from a former clerk of Judge Fuld whom I knew from the clerk network: Judge Jack Weinstein, a nationally recognized jurist from Brooklyn, the Eastern District, and a federal judge. He had on his docket the Vietnam veterans' Agent Orange class action.You may recall that there were about 250,000 Vietnam veterans who came home claiming illness or injury or death due to the herbicide Agent Orange, which had been dropped by the U.S. Air Force in Vietnam to burn the foliage and vegetation where the Viet Cong enemy might be hiding. Those Vietnam veterans came home suffering terrible diseases, including cancer and chloracne (a sort of acne on the skin), and they brought a lawsuit. Judge Weinstein had the case. Weinstein realized that if that case went to trial, it could be 10 years before there'd be a result, with appeals and all of that.So he appointed me as mediator, called the “special master,” whose job it was to try and settle the case, all as a mediator. Well, after eight weeks of trying, we were successful. There was a master settlement totaling about $250 million—at the time, one of the largest tort verdicts in history. And that one case, front-page news around the nation, set me on a different track. Instead of remaining a Washington lawyer involved in regulatory and legislative matters, I became a mediator, an individual retained by the courts or by the parties to help resolve a case. And that was the beginning. That one Agent Orange case transformed my entire professional career and moved me in a different direction completely.DL: So you knew the late Judge Weinstein through Fuld alumni circles. What background did you have in mediation already, before you handled this gigantic case?KF: None. I told Judge Weinstein, “Judge, I never took a course in mediation at law school (there wasn't one then), and I don't know anything about bringing the parties together, trying to get them to settle.” He said, “I know you. I know your background. I've followed your career. You worked for Senator Kennedy. You are the perfect person.” And until the day I die, I'm beholden to Judge Weinstein for having faith in me to take this on.DL: And over the years, you actually worked on a number of matters at the request of Judge Weinstein.KF: A dozen. I worked on tobacco cases, on asbestos cases, on drug and medical device cases. I even worked for Judge Weinstein mediating the closing of the Shoreham nuclear plant on Long Island. I handled a wide range of cases where he called on me to act as his court-appointed mediator to resolve cases on his docket.DL: You've carved out a very unique and fascinating niche within the law, and I'm guessing that most people who meet you nowadays know who you are. But say you're in a foreign country or something, and some total stranger is chatting with you and asks what you do for a living. What would you say?KF: I would say I'm a lawyer, and I specialize in dispute resolution. It might be mediation, it might be arbitration, or it might even be negotiation, where somebody asks me to negotiate on their behalf. So I just tell people there is a growing field of law in the United States called ADR—alternative dispute resolution—and that it is, as you say, David, my niche, my focus when called upon.DL: And I think it's fair to say that you're one of the founding people in this field or early pioneers—or I don't know how you would describe it.KF: I think that's right. When I began with Agent Orange, there was no mediation to speak of. It certainly wasn't institutionalized; it wasn't streamlined. Today, in 2025, the American Bar Association has a special section on alternative dispute resolution, it's taught in every law school in the United States, there are thousands of mediators and arbitrators, and it's become a major leg in law school of different disciplines and specialties.DL: One question I often ask my guests is, “What is the matter you are most proud of?” Another question I often ask my guests is, “What is the hardest matter you've ever had to deal with?” Another question I often ask my guests is, “What is the matter that you're most well-known for?” And I feel in your case, the same matter is responsive to all three of those questions.KF: That's correct. The most difficult, the most challenging, the most rewarding matter, the one that's given me the most exposure, was the federal September 11 Victim Compensation Fund of 2001, when I was appointed by President George W. Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft to implement, design, and administer a very unique federal law that had been enacted right after 9/11.DL: I got chills as you were just even stating that, very factually, because I was in New York on 9/11, and a lot of us remember the trauma and difficulty of that time. And you basically had to live with that and talk to hundreds, even thousands, of people—survivors, family members—for almost three years. And you did it pro bono. So let me ask you this: what were you thinking?KF: What triggered my interest was the law itself. Thirteen days after the attacks, Congress passed this law, unique in American history, setting up a no-fault administrator compensation system. Don't go to court. Those who volunteer—families of the dead, those who were physically injured at the World Trade Center or the Pentagon—you can voluntarily seek compensation from a taxpayer-funded law. Now, if you don't want it, you don't have to go. It's a voluntary program.The key will be whether the special master or the administrator will be able to convince people that it is a better avenue to pursue than a long, delayed, uncertain lawsuit. And based on my previous experience for the last 15 years, starting with Agent Orange and asbestos and these other tragedies, I volunteered. I went to Senator Kennedy and said, “What about this?” He said, “Leave it to me.” He called President Bush. He knew Attorney General John Ashcroft, who was his former colleague in the U.S. Senate, and he had great admiration for Senator Ashcroft. And so I was invited by the attorney general for an interview, and I told him I was interested. I told him I would only do it pro bono. You can't get paid for a job like this; it's patriotism. And he said, “Go for it.” And he turned out to be my biggest, strongest ally during the 33 months of the program.DL: Are you the managing partner of a boutique or midsize firm? If so, you know that your most important job is attracting and retaining top talent. It's not easy, especially if your benefits don't match up well with those of Biglaw firms or if your HR process feels “small time.” NexFirm has created an onboarding and benefits experience that rivals an Am Law 100 firm, so you can compete for the best talent at a price your firm can afford. Want to learn more? Contact NexFirm at 212-292-1002 or email betterbenefits@nexfirm.com.You talk about this in your books: you were recommended by a very prominent Democratic politician, and the administration at the time was Republican. George W. Bush was president, and John Ashcroft was the attorney general. Why wouldn't they have picked a Republican for this project?KF: Very good question. Senator Kennedy told both of them, “You better be careful here. This is a very, very uncertain program, with taxpayer money used to pay only certain victims. This could be a disaster. And you would be well-advised to pick someone who is not a prominent friend of yours, who is not perceived as just a Republican arm of the Justice Department or the White House. And I've got the perfect person. You couldn't pick a more opposite politician than my former chief of staff, Ken Feinberg. But look at what he's done.” And I think to Senator Kennedy's credit, and certainly to President Bush and to John Ashcroft's, they selected me.DL: As you would expect with a program of this size and complexity, there was controversy and certainly criticism over the years. But overall, looking back, I think people regard it widely as a huge success. Do you have a sense or an estimate of what percentage of people in the position to accept settlements through the program did that, rather than litigate? Because in accepting funds from the program, they did waive their right to bring all sorts of lawsuits.KF: That's correct. If you look at the statistics, if the statistics are a barometer of success, 5,300 applicants were eligible, because of death—about 2,950, somewhere in there—and the remaining claims were for physical injury. Of the 5,300, 97 percent voluntarily accepted the compensation. Only 94 people, 3 percent, opted out, and they all settled their cases five years later. There was never a trial on who was responsible in the law for 9/11. So if statistics are an indication—and I think they are a good indication—the program was a stunning success in accomplishing Congress's objective, which was diverting people voluntarily out of the court system.DL: Absolutely. And that's just a striking statistic. It was really successful in getting funds to families that needed it. They had lost breadwinners; they had lost loved ones. It was hugely successful, and it did not take a decade, as some of these cases involving just thousands of victims often do.I was struck by one thing you just said. You mentioned there was really no trial. And in reading your accounts of your work on this, it seemed almost like people viewed talking to you and your colleagues, Camille and others on this—I think they almost viewed that as their opportunity to be heard, since there wasn't a trial where they would get to testify.KF: That's correct. The primary reason for the success of the 9/11 Fund, and a valuable lesson for me thereafter, was this: give victims the opportunity to be heard, not only in public town-hall meetings where collectively people can vent, but in private, with doors closed. It's just the victim and Feinberg or his designee, Camille. We were the face of the government here. You can't get a meeting with the secretary of defense or the attorney general, the head of the Department of Justice. What you can get is an opportunity behind closed doors to express your anger, your frustration, your disappointment, your sense of uncertainty, with the government official responsible for cutting the checks. And that had an enormous difference in assuring the success of the program.DL: What would you say was the hardest aspect of your work on the Fund?KF: The hardest part of the 9/11 Fund, which I'll never recover from, was not calculating the value of a life. Judges and juries do that every day, David, in every court, in New Jersey and 49 other states. That is not a difficult assignment. What would the victim have earned over a work life? Add something for pain and suffering and emotional distress, and there's your check.The hardest part in any of these funds, starting with 9/11—the most difficult aspect, the challenge—is empathy, and your willingness to sit for over 900 separate hearings, me alone with family members or victims, to hear what they want to tell you, and to make that meeting, from their perspective, worthwhile and constructive. That's the hard part.DL: Did you find it sometimes difficult to remain emotionally composed? Or did you, after a while, develop a sort of thick skin?KF: You remain composed. You are a professional. You have a job to do, for the president of the United States. You can't start wailing and crying in the presence of somebody who was also wailing and crying, so you have to compose yourself. But I tell people who say, “Could I do what you did?” I say, “Sure. There are plenty of people in this country that can do what I did—if you can brace yourself for the emotional trauma that comes with meeting with victim after victim after victim and hearing their stories, which are...” You can't make them up. They're so heart-wrenching and so tragic.I'll give you one example. A lady came to see me, 26 years old, sobbing—one of hundreds of people I met with. “Mr. Feinberg, I lost my husband. He was a fireman at the World Trade Center. He died on 9/11. And he left me with our two children, six and four. Now, Mr. Feinberg, you've calculated and told me I'm going to receive $2.4 million, tax-free, from this 9/11 Fund. I want it in 30 days.”I said to Mrs. Jones, “This is public, taxpayer money. We have to go down to the U.S. Treasury. They've got to cut the checks; they've got to dot all the i's and cross all the t's. It may be 60 days or 90 days, but you'll get your money.”“No. Thirty days.”I said, “Mrs. Jones, why do you need the money in 30 days?”She said, “Why? I'll tell you why, Mr. Feinberg. I have terminal cancer. I have 10 weeks to live. My husband was going to survive me and take care of our two children. Now they're going to be orphans. I have got to get this money, find a guardian, make sure the money's safe, prepare for the kids' schooling. I don't have a lot of time. I need your help.”Well, we ran down to the U.S. Treasury and helped process the check in record time. We got her the money in 30 days—and eight weeks later, she died. Now when you hear story after story like this, you get some indication of the emotional pressure that builds and is debilitating, frankly. And we managed to get through it.DL: Wow. I got a little choked up just even hearing you tell that. Wow—I really don't know what to say.When you were working on the 9/11 Fund, did you have time for any other matters, or was this pretty much exclusively what you were working on for the 33 months?KF: Professionally, it was exclusive. Now what I did was, I stayed in my law firm, so I had a living. Other people in the firm were generating income for the firm; I wasn't on the dole. But it was exclusive. During the day, you are swamped with these individual requests, decisions that have to be made, checks that have to be cut. At night, I escaped: opera, orchestral concerts, chamber music, art museums—the height of civilization. During the day, in the depths of horror of civilization; at night, an escape, an opportunity to just enjoy the benefits of civilization. You better have a loving family, as I did, that stands behind you—because you never get over it, really.DL: That's such an important lesson, to actually have that time—because if you wanted to, you could have worked on this 24/7. But it is important to have some time to just clear your head or spend time with your family, especially just given what you were dealing with day-to-day.KF: That's right. And of course, during the day, we made a point of that as well. If we were holding hearings like the one I just explained, we'd take a one-hour break, go for a walk, go into Central Park or into downtown Washington, buy an ice cream cone, see the kids playing in playgrounds and laughing. You've got to let the steam out of the pressure cooker, or it'll kill you. And that was the most difficult part of the whole program. In all of these programs, that's the common denominator: emotional stress and unhappiness on the part of the victims.DL: One last question, before we turn to some other matters. There was also a very large logistical apparatus associated with this, right? For example, PricewaterhouseCoopers. It wasn't just you and Camille trying to deal with these thousands of survivors and claimants; you did have support.KF: That's right. Pricewaterhouse won the bid at the Justice Department. This is public: Pricewaterhouse, for something like around $100 million, put 450 people to work with us to help us process claims, appraise values, do the research. Pricewaterhouse was a tremendous ally and has gone on, since 9/11, to handle claims design and claims administration, as one of its many specialties. Emily Kent, Chuck Hacker, people like that we worked with for years, very much experts in these areas.DL: So after your work on the 9/11 Fund, you've worked on a number of these types of matters. Is there one that you would say ranks second in terms of complexity or difficulty or meaningfulness to you?KF: Yes. Deepwater Horizon in 2011, 2012—that oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico blew up and killed about, I don't know, 15 to 20 people in the explosion. But the real challenge in that program was how we received, in 16 months, about 1,250,000 claims for business interruption, business losses, property damage. We received over a million claims from 50 states. I think we got probably a dozen claims from New Jersey; I didn't know the oil had gotten to New Jersey. We received claims from 35 foreign countries. And the sheer volume of the disaster overwhelmed us. We had, at one point, something like 40,000 people—vendors—working for us. We had 35 offices throughout the Gulf of Mexico, from Galveston, Texas, all the way to Mobile Bay, Alabama. Nevertheless, in 16 months, on behalf of BP, Deepwater Horizon, we paid out all BP money, a little over $7 billion, to 550,000 eligible claimants. And that, I would say, other than 9/11, had the greatest impact and was the most satisfying.DL: You mentioned some claims coming from some pretty far-flung jurisdictions. In these programs, how much of a problem is fraud?KF: Not much. First of all, with death claims like 9/11 or the Boston Marathon bombings or the 20 first-graders who died in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, at the hands of a deranged gunmen—most of the time, in traumatic death and injury, you've got records. No one can beat the system; you have to have a death certificate. In 9/11, where are your military records, if you were at the Pentagon? Where are the airplane manifests? You've got to be on the manifest if you were flying on that plane.Now, the problem becomes more pronounced in something like BP, where you've got over a million claims, and you wonder, how many people can claim injury from this explosion? There we had an anti-fraud unit—Guidepost, Bart Schwartz's company—and they did a tremendous job of spot-checking claims. I think that out of over a million claims, there may have been 25,000 that were suspicious. And we sent those claims to the Justice Department, and they prosecuted a fair number of people. But it wasn't a huge problem. I think the fraud rate was something like 3 percent; that's nothing. So overall, we haven't found—and we have to be ever-vigilant, you're right—but we haven't found much in the way of fraud.DL: I'm glad to hear that, because it would really be very depressing to think that there were people trying to profiteer off these terrible disasters and tragedies. Speaking of continuing disasters and tragedies, turning to current events, you are now working with Southern California Edison in dealing with claims related to the Eaton Fire. And this is a pending matter, so of course you may have some limits in terms of what you can discuss, but what can you say in a general sense about this undertaking?KF: This is the Los Angeles wildfires that everybody knows about, from the last nine or ten months—the tremendous fire damage in Los Angeles. One of the fires, or one of the selected hubs of the fire, was the Eaton Fire. Southern California Edison, the utility involved in the litigation and finger-pointing, decided to set up, à la 9/11, a voluntary claims program. Not so much to deal with death—there were about 19 deaths, and a handful of physical injuries—but terrible fire damage, destroyed homes, damaged businesses, smoke and ash and soot, for miles in every direction. And the utility decided, its executive decided, “We want to do the right thing here. We may be held liable or we may not be held liable for the fire, but we think the right thing to do is nip in the bud this idea of extended litigation. Look at 9/11: only 94 people ended up suing. We want to set up a program.”They came to Camille and me. Over the last eight weeks, we've designed the program, and I think in the last week of October or the first week of November, you will see publicly, “Here is the protocol; here is the claim form. Please submit your claims, and we'll get them paid within 90 days.” And if history is an indicator, Camille and I think that the Eaton Fire Protocol will be a success, and the great bulk of the thousands of victims will voluntarily decide to come into the program. We'll see. [Ed. note: On Wednesday, a few days after Ken and I recorded this episode, Southern California Edison announced its Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program.]DL: That raises a question that I'm curious about. How would you describe the relationship between the work that you and Camille and your colleagues do and the traditional work of the courts, in terms of in-the-trenches litigation? Because I do wonder whether the growth in your field is perhaps related to some developments in litigation, in terms of litigation becoming more expensive over the decades (in a way that far outstrips inflation), more complicated, or more protracted. How would you characterize that relationship?KF: I would say that the programs that we design and administer—like 9/11, like BP, plus the Eaton wildfires—are an exception to the rule. Nobody should think that these programs that we have worked on are the wave of the future. They are not the wave of the future; they are isolated, unique examples, where a company—or in 9/11, the U.S. government—decides, “We ought to set up a special program where the courts aren't involved, certainly not directly.” In 9/11, they were prohibited to be involved, by statute; in some of these other programs, like BP, the courts have a relationship, but they don't interfere with the day-to-day administration of the program.And I think the American people have a lot of faith in the litigation system that you correctly point out can be uncertain, very inefficient, and very costly. But the American people, since the founding of the country, think, “You pick your lawyer, I'll pick my lawyer, and we'll have a judge and jury decide.” That's the American rule of law; I don't think it's going to change. But occasionally there is a groundswell of public pressure to come up with a program, or there'll be a company—like the utility, like BP—that decides to have a program.And I'll give you one other example: the Catholic Church confronted thousands of claims of sexual abuse by priests. It came to us, and we set up a program—just like 9/11, just like BP—where we invited, voluntarily, any minor—any minor from decades ago, now an adult—who had been abused by the church to come into this voluntary program. We paid out, I think, $700 million to $800 million, to victims in dioceses around the country. So there's another example—Camille did most of that—but these programs are all relatively rare. There are thousands of litigations every day, and nothing's going to change that.DL: I had a guest on a few weeks ago, Chris Seeger of Seeger Weiss, who does a lot of work in the mass-tort space. It's interesting: I feel that that space has evolved, and maybe in some ways it's more efficient than it used to be. They have these multi-district litigation panels, they have these bellwether trials, and then things often get settled, once people have a sense of the values. That system and your approach seem to have some similarities, in the sense that you're not individually trying each one of these cases, and you're having somebody with liability come forward and voluntarily pay out money, after some kind of negotiation.KF: Well, there's certainly negotiation in what Chris Seeger does; I'm not sure we have much negotiation. We say, “Here's the amount under the administrative scheme.” It's like in workers' compensation: here's the amount. You don't have to take it. There's nothing to really talk about, unless you have new evidence that we're not aware of. And those programs, when we do design them, seem to work very efficiently.Again, if you ask Camille Biros what was the toughest part of valuing individual claims of sexual-abuse directed at minors, she would say, “These hearings: we gave every person who wanted an opportunity to be heard.” And when they come to see Camille, they don't come to talk about money; they want validation for what they went through. “Believe me, will you? Ken, Camille, believe me.” And when Camille says, “We do believe you,” they immediately, or almost immediately, accept the compensation and sign a release: “I will not sue the Catholic diocese.”DL: So you mentioned there isn't really much negotiation, but you did talk in the book about these sort of “appeals.” You had these two tracks, “Appeals A” and “Appeals B.” Can you talk about that? Did you ever revisit what you had set as the award for a particular victim's family, after hearing from them in person?KF: Sure. Now, remember, those appeals came back to us, not to a court; there's no court involvement. But in 9/11, in BP, if somebody said, “You made a mistake—you didn't account for these profits or this revenue, or you didn't take into account this contract that my dead firefighter husband had that would've given him a lot more money”—of course, we'll revisit that. We invited that. But that's an internal appeals process. The people who calculated the value of the claim are the same people that are going to be looking at revisiting the claim. But again, that's due process, and that's something that we thought was important.DL: You and Camille have been doing this really important work for decades. Since this is, of course, shortly after your 80th birthday, I should ask: do you have future plans? You're tackling some of the most complicated matters, headline-making matters. Would you ever want to retire at some point?KF: I have no intention of retiring. I do agree that when you reach a certain pinnacle in what you've done, you do slow down. We are much more selective in what we do. I used to have maybe 15 mediations going on at once; now, we have one or two matters, like the Los Angeles wildfires. As long as I'm capable, as long as Camille's willing, we'll continue to do it, but we'll be very careful about what we select to do. We don't travel much. The Los Angeles wildfires was largely Zooms, going back and forth. And we're not going to administer that program. We had administered 9/11 and BP; we're trying to move away from that. It's very time-consuming and stressful. So we've accomplished a great deal over the last 50 years—but as long as we can do it, we'll continue to do it.DL: Do you have any junior colleagues who would take over what you and Camille have built?KF: We don't have junior colleagues. There's just the two of us and Cindy Sanzotta, our receptionist. But it's an interesting question: “Who's after Feinberg? Who's next in doing this?” I think there are thousands of people in this country who could do what we do. It is not rocket science. It really isn't. I'll tell you what's difficult: the emotion. If somebody wants to do what we do, you better brace yourself for the emotion, the anger, the frustration, the finger pointing. It goes with the territory. And if you don't have the psychological ability to handle this type of stress, stay away. But I'm sure somebody will be there, and no one's irreplaceable.DL: Well, I know I personally could not handle it. I worked when I was at a law firm on civil litigation over insurance proceeds related to the World Trade Center, and that was a very draining case, and I was very glad to no longer be on it. So I could not do what you and Camille do. But let me ask you, to end this section on a positive note: what would you say is the most rewarding or meaningful or satisfying aspect of the work that you do on these programs?KF: Giving back to the community. Public service. Helping the community heal. Not so much the individuals; the individuals are part of the community. “Every individual can make a difference.” I remember that every day, what John F. Kennedy said: government service is a noble undertaking. So what's most rewarding for me is that although I'm a private practitioner—I am no longer in government service, since my days with Senator Kennedy—I'd like to think that I performed a valuable service for the community, the resilience of the community, the charity exhibited by the community. And that gives me a great sense of self-satisfaction.DL: You absolutely have. It's been amazing, and I'm so grateful for you taking the time to join me.So now, onto our speed round. These are four questions that are standardized. My first question is, what do you like the least about the law? And this can either be the practice of law or law in a more abstract sense.KF: Uncertainty. What I don't like about the law is—and I guess maybe it's the flip side of the best way to get to a result—I don't like the uncertainty of the law. I don't like the fact that until the very end of the process, you don't know if your view and opinion will prevail. And I think losing control over your destiny in that regard is problematic.DL: My second question—and maybe we touched on this a little bit, when we talked about your father's opinions—what would you be if you were not a lawyer?KF: Probably an actor. As I say, I almost became an actor. And I still love theater and the movies and Broadway shows. If my father hadn't given me that advice, I was on the cusp of pursuing a career in the theater.DL: Have you dabbled in anything in your (probably limited) spare time—community theater, anything like that?KF: No, but I certainly have prioritized in my spare time classical music and the peace and optimism it brings to the listener. It's been an important part of my life.DL: My third question is, how much sleep do you get each night?KF: Well, it varies from program to program. I'd like to get seven hours. That's what my doctors tell me: “Ken, very important—more important than pills and exercise and diet—is sleep. Your body needs a minimum of seven hours.” Well, for me, seven hours is rare—it's more like six or even five, and during 9/11 or during Eaton wildfires, it might be more like four or five. And that's not enough, and that is a problem.DL: My last question is, any final words of wisdom, such as career advice or life advice, for my listeners?KF: Yes, I'll give you some career and life advice. It's very simple: don't plan too far ahead. People have this view—you may think you know what you want to do with your career. You may think you know what life holds for you. You don't know. If I've learned anything over the last decades, life has a way of changing the best-laid plans. These 9/11 husbands and wives said goodbye to their children, “we'll see you for dinner,” a perfunctory wave—and they never saw them again. Dust, not even a body. And the idea I tell law students—who say, ”I'm going to be a corporate lawyer,” or “I'm going to be a litigator”—I tell them, “You have no idea what your legal career will look like. Look at Feinberg; he never planned on this. He never thought, in his wildest dreams, that this would be his chosen avenue of the law.”My advice: enjoy the moment. Do what you like now. Don't worry too much about what you'll be doing two years, five years, 10 years, a lifetime ahead of you. It doesn't work that way. Everybody gets thrown curveballs, and that's advice I give to everybody.DL: Well, you did not plan out your career, but it has turned out wonderfully, and the country is better for it. Thank you, Ken, both for your work on all these matters over the years and for joining me today.KF: A privilege and an honor. Thanks, David.DL: Thanks so much to Ken for joining me—and, of course, for his decades of work resolving some of the thorniest disputes in the country, which is truly a form of public service.Thanks to NexFirm for sponsoring the Original Jurisdiction podcast. NexFirm has helped many attorneys to leave Biglaw and launch firms of their own. To explore this opportunity, please contact NexFirm at 212-292-1000 or email careerdevelopment@nexfirm.com to learn more.Thanks to Tommy Harron, my sound engineer here at Original Jurisdiction, and thanks to you, my listeners and readers. To connect with me, please email me at davidlat@substack.com, or find me on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, at davidlat, and on Instagram and Threads at davidbenjaminlat.If you enjoyed today's episode, please rate, review, and subscribe. Please subscribe to the Original Jurisdiction newsletter if you don't already, over at davidlat.substack.com. This podcast is free, but it's made possible by paid subscriptions to the newsletter.The next episode should appear on or about Wednesday, November 12. Until then, may your thinking be original and your jurisdiction free of defects.Thanks for reading Original Jurisdiction, and thanks to my paid subscribers for making this publication possible. Subscribers get (1) access to Judicial Notice, my time-saving weekly roundup of the most notable news in the legal world; (2) additional stories reserved for paid subscribers; (3) transcripts of podcast interviews; and (4) the ability to comment on posts. You can email me at davidlat@substack.com with questions or comments, and you can share this post or subscribe using the buttons below. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit davidlat.substack.com/subscribe

Hello Meatsacks! Time for more Halloween week horror! This one was, as you can guess, released the week before yesterday's story, from this past May. And in it, we head to the tropical jungle of Vietnam's Annamese mountains. When on a dark, rainy night in January of 1968, PsyWar Detachment Six was conducting black ops meant to terrify and break the spirits of the Viet Cong.  Enjoy!This episode was scored by Logan Keith. We recommend listening with headphones to experience the full effect of all the creepy background noises. If you like this episode, please let us know wherever you rate and review podcasts. For more episodes of Nightmare Fuel - check out Scared to Death's podcast feed where I've been releasing two a month since February of 2024. Thanks!! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

00:10:00 – The 10th Amendment CrisisKnight explains how Trump's use of the Insurrection Act violates state sovereignty and sets a precedent for federal militarization. Republican senators like Murkowski and Tillis express concern but remain too afraid to confront Trump directly. 00:21:13 – ICE Snipers and the War on ProtestVideo evidence shows ICE agents firing pepper balls at peaceful protesters and clergy. Knight argues this militarized policing proves Trump's contempt for civil liberties and the Bill of Rights. 00:30:44 – Artificial Integrity: Pam Bondi & Cash PatelKnight coins the term “artificial integrity” to describe Trump's loyalists like Pam Bondi and Cash Patel, accusing them of evasion, dishonesty, and political theater during congressional hearings about Comey and Epstein. 00:37:36 – Marjorie Taylor Greene Breaks with TrumpKnight highlights Greene's public statement rejecting blind loyalty to Trump and defending her independence. He praises her rare courage, contrasting it with the cowardice of most GOP officials. 00:41:00 – FBI Spies on Republican SenatorsRevelation that the FBI secretly accessed phone records of eight Republican senators triggers outrage. Knight mocks their hypocrisy for ignoring mass surveillance until it targeted them personally. 00:44:24 – Trump Jr.'s Pharma GriftTrump Jr. joins the board of a prescription delivery company set to profit from a Trump administration drug summit. Knight calls it blatant graft disguised as “health reform.” 00:52:21 – Gold Surges Past $4,000Knight reports that gold has shattered the $4,000 mark, framing it as a collapse of faith in fiat currencies rather than a rise in gold's intrinsic value. He warns of a global debt time bomb and urges listeners to hold physical metals, not paper ETFs. 01:21:21 – EU Approves Mass Chat SurveillanceKnight exposes the EU's “Chat Control 2.0,” a regulation scanning all private messages under the pretext of child safety. He compares it to FDR's telegram surveillance and calls it the death of digital privacy in Europe. 01:36:33 – Lagarde Pushes Digital EuroChristine Lagarde complains democracy is too slow for the rollout of a CBDC. Knight calls her “Christine the God,” saying she and von der Leyen are accelerating Europe's technocratic takeover under the guise of efficiency. 01:37:52 – California's Pre-Hate Crime BillKnight highlights California's new hate speech law as the U.S. version of European censorship. He warns it criminalizes “potential hate” and mirrors Soviet-style repression disguised as tolerance. 01:53:08 – Outlawing Hate & Christian PersecutionKnight and callers discuss how outlawing hate only drives resentment underground. They argue Christians and white males have become the primary targets of Western censorship and discrimination campaigns. 01:57:00 – Biden's CIA Cover-Up in UkraineSegment details Biden's effort to suppress intelligence on his family's Ukrainian corruption ties while pressuring prosecutors to halt investigations—evidence of long-standing collusion between the CIA and political elites. 02:03:22 – “Precious Freedom” and the Lies of VietnamAuthor James Bradley joins to discuss his book Precious Freedom, which reexamines the Vietnam War through the eyes of both Americans and Vietnamese. He describes unraveling decades of U.S. propaganda and explains how Vietnamese victory stemmed from defending their homeland—not ideology. 02:17:03 – The Fake North–South Vietnam NarrativeBradley reveals that the U.S. and CIA fabricated the idea of “two Vietnams,” turning a temporary French withdrawal line into a false border to justify intervention. Knight compares it to modern media deception surrounding COVID and other political lies. 02:28:14 – Mothers, Media, and Awakening to WarThe character Betty, a patriotic mother, mirrors America's awakening as she discovers suppressed speeches by Muhammad Ali and Martin Luther King Jr. condemning the war. Knight and Bradley discuss how media censorship concealed moral opposition. 02:37:42 – CIA, Opium, and the War MachineKnight and Bradley expose General Westmoreland's alleged role in global opium trafficking and how CIA operations in Vietnam, Laos, and Italy funded covert wars. They argue mainstream media knowingly concealed this vast corruption network. 02:40:49 – The Night War Vietnam StoryBradley explains that America never “won a single 24-hour period” in Vietnam. The Vietcong fought exclusively at night while U.S. troops retreated daily, contradicting the myth that the U.S. “won every battle.” 02:43:55 – Lessons for America's Future WarsBradley likens Ho Chi Minh to George Washington, saying defenders always win when fighting for home. Knight connects these lessons to modern U.S. interventions in Iran and Venezuela, warning that America's leaders keep repeating Vietnam's mistakes. 02:55:49 – The Real Domino TheoryKnight concludes that while America fought communism abroad, Marxism quietly conquered its schools, bureaucracy, and culture—turning the “domino theory” inward. Follow the show on Kick and watch live every weekday 9:00am EST – 12:00pm EST https://kick.com/davidknightshow Money should have intrinsic value AND transactional privacy: Go to https://davidknight.gold/ for great deals on physical gold/silverFor 10% off Gerald Celente's prescient Trends Journal, go to https://trendsjournal.com/ and enter the code KNIGHTFind out more about the show and where you can watch it at TheDavidKnightShow.com If you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-showOr you can send a donation throughMail: David Knight POB 994 Kodak, TN 37764Zelle: @DavidKnightShow@protonmail.comCash App at: $davidknightshowBTC to: bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-david-knight-show--2653468/support.

00:10:00 – The 10th Amendment CrisisKnight explains how Trump's use of the Insurrection Act violates state sovereignty and sets a precedent for federal militarization. Republican senators like Murkowski and Tillis express concern but remain too afraid to confront Trump directly. 00:21:13 – ICE Snipers and the War on ProtestVideo evidence shows ICE agents firing pepper balls at peaceful protesters and clergy. Knight argues this militarized policing proves Trump's contempt for civil liberties and the Bill of Rights. 00:30:44 – Artificial Integrity: Pam Bondi & Cash PatelKnight coins the term “artificial integrity” to describe Trump's loyalists like Pam Bondi and Cash Patel, accusing them of evasion, dishonesty, and political theater during congressional hearings about Comey and Epstein. 00:37:36 – Marjorie Taylor Greene Breaks with TrumpKnight highlights Greene's public statement rejecting blind loyalty to Trump and defending her independence. He praises her rare courage, contrasting it with the cowardice of most GOP officials. 00:41:00 – FBI Spies on Republican SenatorsRevelation that the FBI secretly accessed phone records of eight Republican senators triggers outrage. Knight mocks their hypocrisy for ignoring mass surveillance until it targeted them personally. 00:44:24 – Trump Jr.'s Pharma GriftTrump Jr. joins the board of a prescription delivery company set to profit from a Trump administration drug summit. Knight calls it blatant graft disguised as “health reform.” 00:52:21 – Gold Surges Past $4,000Knight reports that gold has shattered the $4,000 mark, framing it as a collapse of faith in fiat currencies rather than a rise in gold's intrinsic value. He warns of a global debt time bomb and urges listeners to hold physical metals, not paper ETFs. 01:21:21 – EU Approves Mass Chat SurveillanceKnight exposes the EU's “Chat Control 2.0,” a regulation scanning all private messages under the pretext of child safety. He compares it to FDR's telegram surveillance and calls it the death of digital privacy in Europe. 01:36:33 – Lagarde Pushes Digital EuroChristine Lagarde complains democracy is too slow for the rollout of a CBDC. Knight calls her “Christine the God,” saying she and von der Leyen are accelerating Europe's technocratic takeover under the guise of efficiency. 01:37:52 – California's Pre-Hate Crime BillKnight highlights California's new hate speech law as the U.S. version of European censorship. He warns it criminalizes “potential hate” and mirrors Soviet-style repression disguised as tolerance. 01:53:08 – Outlawing Hate & Christian PersecutionKnight and callers discuss how outlawing hate only drives resentment underground. They argue Christians and white males have become the primary targets of Western censorship and discrimination campaigns. 01:57:00 – Biden's CIA Cover-Up in UkraineSegment details Biden's effort to suppress intelligence on his family's Ukrainian corruption ties while pressuring prosecutors to halt investigations—evidence of long-standing collusion between the CIA and political elites. 02:03:22 – “Precious Freedom” and the Lies of VietnamAuthor James Bradley joins to discuss his book Precious Freedom, which reexamines the Vietnam War through the eyes of both Americans and Vietnamese. He describes unraveling decades of U.S. propaganda and explains how Vietnamese victory stemmed from defending their homeland—not ideology. 02:17:03 – The Fake North–South Vietnam NarrativeBradley reveals that the U.S. and CIA fabricated the idea of “two Vietnams,” turning a temporary French withdrawal line into a false border to justify intervention. Knight compares it to modern media deception surrounding COVID and other political lies. 02:28:14 – Mothers, Media, and Awakening to WarThe character Betty, a patriotic mother, mirrors America's awakening as she discovers suppressed speeches by Muhammad Ali and Martin Luther King Jr. condemning the war. Knight and Bradley discuss how media censorship concealed moral opposition. 02:37:42 – CIA, Opium, and the War MachineKnight and Bradley expose General Westmoreland's alleged role in global opium trafficking and how CIA operations in Vietnam, Laos, and Italy funded covert wars. They argue mainstream media knowingly concealed this vast corruption network. 02:40:49 – The Night War Vietnam StoryBradley explains that America never “won a single 24-hour period” in Vietnam. The Vietcong fought exclusively at night while U.S. troops retreated daily, contradicting the myth that the U.S. “won every battle.” 02:43:55 – Lessons for America's Future WarsBradley likens Ho Chi Minh to George Washington, saying defenders always win when fighting for home. Knight connects these lessons to modern U.S. interventions in Iran and Venezuela, warning that America's leaders keep repeating Vietnam's mistakes. 02:55:49 – The Real Domino TheoryKnight concludes that while America fought communism abroad, Marxism quietly conquered its schools, bureaucracy, and culture—turning the “domino theory” inward. Follow the show on Kick and watch live every weekday 9:00am EST – 12:00pm EST https://kick.com/davidknightshow Money should have intrinsic value AND transactional privacy: Go to https://davidknight.gold/ for great deals on physical gold/silverFor 10% off Gerald Celente's prescient Trends Journal, go to https://trendsjournal.com/ and enter the code KNIGHTFind out more about the show and where you can watch it at TheDavidKnightShow.com If you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-showOr you can send a donation throughMail: David Knight POB 994 Kodak, TN 37764Zelle: @DavidKnightShow@protonmail.comCash App at: $davidknightshowBTC to: bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-david-knight-show--5282736/support.

In this episode, a companion to the previous one, Sean and James discuss the experience of Vietnamese front-line combat troops in the Vietnam War, including members of the North Vietnamese Army, the Viet Cong, and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We welcome veterans of the now-gone Army Security Agency, which was first created on September 15, 1945, in the immediate aftermath of World War II. ASA veterans John Peart and others will share their stories of service with this shadowy intelligence agency that played a critical role in the Cold War. The Army Security Agency (ASA) operated under the authority of the National Security Agency (NSA) and was tasked with intercepting, analyzing, and exploiting enemy communications. Its mission included codebreaking, electronic intelligence gathering, direction finding, and secure communications. The ASA played a central role during the early Cold War period, collecting intelligence on the Soviet Union and its allies. ASA units were composed of highly trained personnel, often fluent in foreign languages, skilled in radio operations, cryptography, and electronic surveillance. The ASA's role expanded during the Korean War and reached a peak of operational activity during the Vietnam War. ASA personnel were deployed across Southeast Asia, conducting covert and direct support operations for U.S. and allied forces. They established field stations and remote intercept sites near conflict zones and along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Using direction-finding equipment and advanced signal processing tools, they intercepted enemy radio traffic, provided early warning of enemy movements, and monitored North Vietnamese and Viet Cong communications. Their intelligence was vital to strategic planning and tactical decision-making. One of the most significant and symbolic events involving the ASA during the Vietnam War was the death of Specialist 4 James T. Davis on December 22, 1961. Davis, part of the 3rd Radio Research Unit—the ASA cover name in Vietnam—was on a joint operation with South Vietnamese forces near Saigon when his convoy was ambushed. He and ten South Vietnamese soldiers were killed. Davis became the first American battlefield casualty of the Vietnam War recognized by the Department of Defense. His death marked a turning point, highlighting the increasing U.S. involvement in Vietnam and the dangerous nature of ASA missions in the field. The ASA compound at Tan Son Nhut Air Base was later named “Davis Station” in his honor. Throughout the Vietnam War, ASA personnel worked in close coordination with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Air Force Security Service, and Navy intelligence units. Their work remained classified for decades. Despite the high-risk nature of their missions, ASA soldiers were generally non-combatants operating in a military intelligence capacity, though many saw combat or were exposed to hostile fire due to their proximity to enemy forces. The ASA continued its global intelligence operations through the 1970s but was eventually dissolved in 1977. Its functions were absorbed into the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM), consolidating Army intelligence efforts under a single command structure. Though no longer active, the ASA's legacy endures in the modern electronic warfare and signals intelligence capabilities of the U.S. Army. We're grateful to UPMC for Life  for sponsoring this event!

Send us a textIn today's episode, I'm honored to chat with Le Ly Hayslip, internationally known Vietnamese-American author, philanthropist, peace activist, and speaker. Le Ly grew up in central Vietnam during the American-Vietnam War and later authored two bestselling memoirs, When Heaven and Earth Changed Places and Child of War, Woman of Peace. Her story of resilience inspired Oliver Stone's 1993 film Heaven & Earth. Beyond her writing, she founded two humanitarian organizations—East Meets West Foundation and Global Village Foundation—dedicated to rebuilding Vietnam through education, medical care, and essential resources.Episode Highlights:Her upbringing in a rice-farming family of 6 children in central Vietnam, living under the pressures of both American forces and the Viet Cong.The importance of protecting family gravesites and places of worship as a way of preserving identity and tradition.Why her book cannot be published in Vietnam, and how Oliver Stone's film adaptation offers another way to experience her story.How returning to Vietnam in the 1980s inspired her lifelong humanitarian work.Her invitation to visit the beauty of Vietnam, where she leads trips in both the spring and fall.✨ Le Ly also shared with me about the upcoming Global Village Foundation Awards Gala to celebrate 30 years of U.S. & Vietnam diplomatic relations at the  on 11/15/25. You can find more information on the Global Village Foundation website. Le Ly's story is one of survival, forgiveness, and hope. As she says, “We cannot change the past. But if each of us stands up to change the world, we will change the world.”Connect with Le Ly:WebsiteGlobal Village FoundationInstagramShow NotesSome links are affiliate links, which are no extra cost to you but do help to support the show.Books and authors mentioned in the episode:Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East by Baird T. SpaldingMany Lives, Many Masters by Brian L. WeissRamtha: The White Book by RamthaBook FlightOn the Ho Chi Minh Trail by Sherry BuchananPerfect Spy by Larry BermanDancing in the Light by Shirley MacLaine

L.A. rioting brings death and destruction; U.S. Marines hit the Viet Cong; the Beatles hit Minneapolis; Juan Marichal hits John Roseboro; Jim Maloney achieves baseball immortality. Newscaster: Joe Rubenstein.   Support this project on Patreon!

On the morning of March 16, 1968, Charlie Company lands in the village of My Lai expecting to face hardened Viet Cong fighters. Instead, they find unarmed civilians – and proceed to carry out one of the most infamous massacres in U.S. military history. Be the first to know about Wondery's newest podcasts, curated recommendations, and more! Sign up now at https://wondery.fm/wonderynewsletterListen to American Scandal on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad-free and be the first to binge the newest season. Unlock exclusive early access by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial today by visiting wondery.com/links/american-scandal/ now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Vietnam War was defined by brutal heat, punishing rain, and impenetrable jungles full of hidden danger at every step. And that was just on the surface. Underneath it all there was an even more fearsome battleground, in the dark, claustrophobic and deadly labyrinth of Vietcong tunnels.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Kencan Dengan Tuhan - Minggu, 17 Agustus 2025Bacaan: "Akan tetapi kamu, saudara-saudaraku yang kekasih, bangunlah dirimu sendiri di atas dasar imanmu yang paling suci dan berdoalah dalam Roh Kudus." (Yudas 1:20)Renungan: Sebuah desa di Vietnam Selatan tahun 1968 mengalami mujizat pertolongan Tuhan yang luar biasa. Di dalam kegelapan, satu batalyon dari seribu batalyon tentara Viet Congyang ada di daerah itu, memasuki desa dan memperingatkan, "Besok adalah giliran desa ini. Jadi, jika kalian merasa harus meninggalkan desa ini, tinggalkanlah sekarang juga." Sebagian besar penduduk desa adalah orang Kristen. Mereka saling mencari, dan bertemu satu sama lain. Mesakipun jumlah mereka jauh lebih kecil dibandingkan pasukan tentara yang sangat banyak, namun mereka memutuskan untuk berdoa dan meminta pertolongan Tuhan tanpa harus keluar dari desa itu. Mereka bernyanyi dan berdoa dengan sungguh-sungguh. Keesokan harinya ketika senja, mereka melihat dengan jelas para musuh bergerak ke arah pinggiran desa. Beberapa hari kemudian, sebagian tentara Viet Cong tertangkap dan dibawa masuk ke desa untuk dipenjarakan. Ketika para tentara itu ditanya apa yang terjadi, mereka menjawab, "Ketika kami mulai menyerang desa ini dengan tembakan, kami melihat desa ini dikelilingi makhluk-makhluk berpakaian putih dan bercahaya. Ketika kami menembak mereka, mereka malah bertambah besar dan semakin bercahaya. Mereka bergerak untuk menyerang kami dan mereka tidak bisa jatuh. Itu sebabnya kami berlari ke arah pinggiran desa tanpa berhenti. Melalui doa Tuhan membuat musuh mereka seperti asap tertiup angin dan mejelah bagaikan lilin dalam api. Jangan padamkan semangat untuk berdoa, karena melalui doa banyak hal bisa terjadi. Kita tidak bisa mengubah keadaan yang sulit dengan kekuatan sendiri. Banyak hal yang membuat kita merasa takut dan gentar. Tetapi melalui doa, kita dimampukan untuk menghadapi setiap kesulitan. Jika saat ini kita berada dalam ketakutan atau kegelisahan karena penyakit, ekonomi, ujian, dikhianati pasangan, masalah keluarga, hutang piutang dan sebagainya, datanglah kepada Tuhan dalam doa. Yakobus 5:16b berkata, "Doa orang yang benar, bila dengan yakin didoakan, sangat besar kuasanya." Doa mampu menarik kuasa Tuhan. Ketika kekuatan, kekayaan atau kehebatan manusia tidak bisa menolong, carilah kekuatan Tuhan di dalam doa. Kita adalah pribadi yang dikasihi Tuhan, jadi Tuhan siap untuk menolong kita asalkan hati kita terbuka untuk percaya kepada-Nya. Tuhan Yesus memberkati.Doa:Tuhan Yesus, terima kasih atas jaminan yang Engkau janjikan dan akan aku peroleh ketika aku berdoa. Ajarilah aku untuk percaya pada kuasa-Mu. Jangan biarkan aku bermain dengan logikaku ketika meminta pertolongan-Mu untuk menyelesaikan masalahku, tetapi biarlah imanku yang berperan agar kuasa-Mu dapat bekerja secara leluasa di dalam kehidupanku. Amin. (Dod).

Operation Ranch Hand was part of a strategy by the U.S. to counter the guerrilla tactics of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces by targeting agricultural areas and forest cover with chemicals such as Agent ...

In this special MrBallen's Medical Mysteries and Redacted crossover episode, MrBallen and Luke Lamana join forces to bring you two shocking stories of the military testing bizarre, deadly weapons of war in secret. In “Red Menace,” a 75-year-old pipe fitter in San Francisco wakes up feeling tired and weak for seemingly no reason. Worst of all, his urine is bright red. And he's not the only one. Doctors have to act fast to discover the true nature of this terrifying phenomenon. And on “Weather Warriors,” the U.S. Army goes to extreme lengths to disrupt Viet Cong supply lines through a classified program called Operation Popeye. Be the first to know about Wondery's newest podcasts, curated recommendations, and more! Sign up now at https://wondery.fm/wonderynewsletterFollow MrBallen's Medical Mysteries on Amazon Music, the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes publish for free every Tuesday. Prime members can listen to new episodes early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Or, you can listen episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Start your free trial in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or by visiting https://wondery.com/links/mrballens-medical-mysteries/ now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A inizio agosto del 1964 il cacciatorpediniere USS Maddox, in servizio di pattugliamento delle coste del Vietnam del Nord, denuncia due attacchi nel giro di 48 ore da parte di siluranti nemiche. La suggestione, il calcolo errato, i rapporti missione manomessi raccontano di battaglie navali ingigantite o addirittura inesistenti, un modo complesso per ottenere il casus belli desiderato alla Casa Bianca. Di fronte ai rifiuti di Hanoi di disarmare i Vietcong accettando in cambio degli accordi commerciali, gli USA reagiscono scatenando una guerra che si rivelerà un inferno e uno smacco epocale.

In this episode, Sean and James discuss President Richard Nixon’s early approach to the Vietnam War, highlighting his policy of Vietnamization—gradually shifting combat responsibility to South Vietnamese forces while withdrawing U.S. troops. It examines the fractured 1968 presidential election, Nixon’s political maneuvering, and key military developments like the failed Communist Tet ’69 Offensive and the controversial Battle of Hamburger Hill. Nixon’s strategy included a shift to pacification under General Creighton Abrams, secret bombing in Cambodia (Operation Menu), and the CIA-led Phoenix Program targeting Viet Cong leadership. Despite early American successes, the war continued with no clear end in sight, even as Communist forces began to weaken by late 1969.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

John Wolfram joined the US Navy in 1967 and graduated from Underwater Demolition Training in Coronado, California in May 1968. As a Navy frogman, he was twice deployed to the war in Vietnam, where he received a Purple Heart from a leg wound inflicted during battle with the Viet Cong. John assisted in the Apollo 10 astronaut and space recovery and was the first frogman in the water to rescue Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins after their historical moon landing. John is the author of Splashdown, The Rescue of a Navy Frogman first published in 2008. He is now involved in missions work around the world, with special interest in the country of Vietnam. In 2018 he raised funds to build a Memorial Bible College in central Vietnam to honor five fallen SEAL teammates and three home town friends. Find out more about John here:https://www.johnwolfram.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In late January 1968, the NVA and the Viet Cong launched a massive campaign of well-planned and coordinated attacks, hitting targets all up and down South Vietnam. Although the Allied forces fought off the attacks and inflicted thousands of casualties on the attackers, the offensive showed the American public that the war was far from over, and it ultimately led to the end of the Johnson presidency. Join Sean and James as they discuss this pivotal turning point of the war.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You wanna see a pretty movie where a woman suffers at the hands of the ARVN, the Viet Cong and Tommy Lee Jones? Or perhaps you enjoy cringing discomfort? Obviously, Oliver Stone has you covered, you weird sick freak. Next week: Now even more Navarone-y. Questions? Comments? Suggestions? You can always shoot us an e-mail at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠forscreenandcountry@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠   Full List: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/war-movies/the-100-greatest-war-movies-of-all-time⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/forscreenandcountry⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.twitter.com/fsacpo⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠d⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Our logo was designed by the wonderful Mariah Lirette (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://instagram.com/its.mariah.xo⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠) Heaven & Earth stars Hiep Thi Le, Tommy Lee Jones, Joan Chen, Debbie Reynolds, Conchata Ferrell and Haing S. Ngor; directed by Oliver Stone. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Read "Welcome to the Rebellion" here: https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Welcome-Rebellion-Hope-Radical-Politics/dp/1789043670 Sometimes we need a new hope, when all hope seems lost. An extension of his 2017 Tax cuts for the 1%, massive slashing of services like Medicaid and SNAP, and more money for ICE and the military..WHAT COULD GO WRONG? We'll discuss.   Check out our new bi-weekly series, "The Crisis Papers" here: https://www.patreon.com/bitterlakepresents/shop   Thank you guys again for taking the time to check this out. We appreciate each and everyone of you. If you have the means, and you feel so inclined, BECOME A PATRON! We're creating patron only programing, you'll get bonus content from many of the episodes, and you get MERCH!   Become a patron now https://www.patreon.com/join/BitterLakePresents?   Please also like, subscribe, and follow us on these platforms as well, (specially YouTube!)   THANKS Y'ALL   YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG9WtLyoP9QU8sxuIfxk3eg Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Thisisrevolutionpodcast/ Twitter: @TIRShowOakland Instagram: @thisisrevolutionoakland   Read Jason Myles in Sublation Magazine https://www.sublationmag.com/writers/jason-myles   Read Jason Myles in Damage Magazine https://damagemag.com/2023/11/07/the-man-who-sold-the-world/   Read Jason in Unaligned here: https://substack.com   Read, "We're All Sellouts Now" here: https://benburgis.substack.com/.../all-we-ever-wanted-wa  

Adlai Stevenson collapses and dies; Robert McNamara heads for Saigon; Sinatra plays Forest Hills; Viet Cong forces multiply; a legendary stunt pilot is killed; National League All-Stars reign supreme. Newscaster: Joe Rubenstein.   Support this project on Patreon!

South Vietnam has a long coastline and lots of waterways, particularly in the Mekong River Delta at the southern tip of the country.  In 1968 U.S. Naval Forces Vietnam had roughly 38,000 sailors serving in country.  Their main tasks were to prevent supplies from reaching the Viet Cong, stopping Viet Cong movements, helping move U.S. Army units along the water, and guarding ports and harbors.  It was dangerous work.  1,631 sailors were killed in action, 935 died from other causes, and 4,178 were wounded.  Lieutenant Commander Thomas Cutler served in Vietnam and tells the story. 

In 1965, the ground war in South Vietnam intensified. In June, the ARVN suffered a disaster at the hands of the Viet Cong in the Battle of Dong Xoai. That same year, U. S. President Lyndon Johnson made the fateful decision to greatly expand American involvement in the war, ordering 150,000 new soldiers and Marines to Vietnam right away and another 150,000 to follow them soon afterward.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In early 1963, the Viet Cong decisively defeated an attacking ARVN force at the Battle of Ap Bac, proving that the guerrillas were a force to be reckoned with. During that same year, much of South Vietnam fell under Viet Cong control, while most of the rest of the country descended into chaos. South Vietnamese cities saw an increasing number of protests, many of which were brutally put down by the Diem regime. Ultimately, Diem was assassinated, and a junta of generals took control. In November, U. S. president John F. Kennedy also fell victim to an assassin’s bullet and was replaced by Lyndon Johnson. What effect on the war would the changes in leadership have? Listen, and Sean and James will let you know.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we discuss the film CASUALTIES OF WAR. Pvt. Max Eriksson (Michael J. Fox) is stationed in Vietnam under Sgt. Tony Meserve (Sean Penn). Though Meserve saves Eriksson's life during battle, the two men clash when the callous senior officer orders the abduction of Than Thi Oanh (Thuy Thu Le), a young Vietnamese woman, to be used as a sex slave. When Eriksson refuses to take part in the abuse of Oanh, tensions between him, Meserve and the rest of the unit heat up and finally explode during a firefight with Viet Cong troops. Hear our take on the film and on the critique of SISKEL AND EBERT!Be sure to subscribe on your favorite pod platform and our YOUTUBE channel!Visit thecultworthy.comVisit https://www.themoviewire.comVideo: https://www.youtube.com/@back2thebalcony

In 1959, the government of North Vietnam, now under the direction of Communist Party Chairman Le Duan, decided to initiate a war with the South Vietnamese government led by Ngo Dinh Diem. To help fight Diem’s regime, the North Vietnamese facilitated the formation of a National Liberation Front (later dubbed the Viet Cong by the South Vietnamese government). The NLF/VC began a campaign of terror and assassinations that threatened to bring down the South Vietnamese government. Meanwhile, new U. S. President John F. Kennedy began increasing the number of American military advisors in South Vietnam. Join Sean and James as they discuss this key turning point of the war.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Det er nu 50 år siden, at den blodige krig mellem Nord- og Sydvietnam blev afsluttet - en konflikt, der også involverede USA. Over tre millioner vietnamesere mistede livet, og enorme landområder blev ødelagt af omfattende bombeangreb. Vi kender især den amerikanske fortælling om Vietnamkrigen. Men hvordan lyder den vietnamesiske version af den krig? Hvad fylder mest i historiefortællingen - borgerkrigen mellem Nord og Syd, eller krigen mod amerikanerne? Og hvilken plads har krigen i de yngre generationers bevidsthed? Det er nogle af spørgsmålene i denne uges Kampen om historien, hvor Adam Holm taler med journalist og forfatter Thomas Bo Pedersen. I udsendelsen medvirker også den herboende vietnameser Puk Cao Thanh Ha. Redaktør: Thomas Vinter Larsen I redaktionen: Clara Faust Spies Musik: Adi Zukanovic.

Will and Jeremiah discuss the latest releases by Bad Bangs, Preoccupations, and Alan Sparhawk with Trampled By Turtles, plus deaths of the week, live reports, and bonus songs.

Today Drs. Tim Slekar and Johnny Lupinacci talk about Linda McMahon's push for diversity of thought in higher education. What does she mean by that? Well, apparently it has to do with reeducation camps that would make the Viet Cong blush. Look, we all appreciate being able to express our views in a educational setting, that's part of learning, but what Trumpism wants is not a free and open exchange of ideas. Trumpists want a cultural revolution, but this time they want to be the ones calling the shots. Long story short; what does Trump want? It's like DEI, but for Republicans. BustED Pencils: Fully Leaded Education Talk is part of Civic Media. Subscribe to the podcast to be sure not to miss out on a single episode! Go to bustedpencils.com for swag, all of our episodes, and for information on partnering with us! For information on all of the programming across the Civic Media network, head over to https://civicmedia.us/shows. Join the conversation by calling or texting us at 608-557-8577 to leave a message!

VIII A lo largo de la historia, miles de soldados han sido testigos de lo inexplicable en medio del horror de la guerra. Fantasmas y Militares, rescatamos esos relatos olvidados, a veces silenciados, donde lo sobrenatural aparece justo cuando la muerte acecha. Desde las trincheras de la Primera Guerra Mundial hasta la jungla vietnamita, desde las aguas del Atlántico hasta los cielos de Europa, dramatización de historias reales: desapariciones, apariciones, objetos voladores, criaturas imposibles y testimonios que desafían toda lógica. Cada episodio une historia militar con fenómenos paranormales documentados. Aquí no encontrarás ficción, sino voces que regresan del frente con verdades que nadie quiso escuchar. En cada campo de batalla, más allá del estruendo de las bombas y las órdenes gritadas al viento, hay historias que no figuran en los partes oficiales. Testimonios sellados por el silencio, por el miedo… o por lo imposible. Este podcast rescata esos relatos, donde lo sobrenatural se entrelaza con la guerra. En las oscuras junglas de Vietnam, en agosto de 1969, tres marines estadounidenses patrullaban el perímetro de su campamento en Da Nang, cuando una figura alada surgió entre los árboles. No era un helicóptero. No era el Vietcong. Aquello parecía salido de una pesadilla. Viajaremos también a Ypres, en Bélgica, en plena Primera Guerra Mundial, donde un soldado, agazapado en la trinchera, dijo haber visto a su madre entre el humo del gas mostaza. No gritaba. Solo miraba. En los Países Bajos, a finales de 1585, un destacamento de los Tercios españoles fue rodeado por las aguas al ser inundada la isla de Bommel. El enemigo creía tenerlos atrapados. Pero durante la noche, un soldado encontró algo bajo tierra… a partir de ese momento, la historia cambió. En la batalla de Agincourt, en 1415, se cuenta que una niebla espesa descendió sobre el campo francés. Entre las sombras, algunos juraron ver figuras con arcos medievales, vestidas como en los tiempos de las cruzadas. Arqueros sin cuerda. Flechas que no mataban… pero paralizaban. Siglos después, durante la Primera Guerra Mundial, en el frente de Mons, soldados británicos dijeron ver aquellas mismas figuras cruzando entre el humo y el barro. ¿Fue solo propaganda o realmente regresaron? En la Segunda Guerra Mundial, un enorme B-17, bombardero estadounidense, descendió sobre territorio aliado. Sus motores funcionaban. Su tren de aterrizaje estaba desplegado. Pero ocurrió algo que no tiene sentido. También conocerás el caso del submarino UB-85, interceptado en abril de 1918 por un buque británico en el Mar del Norte. La tripulación alemana se lanzó al mar, desesperada. Cuando fueron interrogados, dijeron que algo había emergido del océano la noche anterior… En Gallípoli, 1915, durante la campaña del Dardanelos, un batallón británico marchó hacia una formación extraña, una nube densa en tierra firme. 250 soldados entraron Observadores neozelandeses los vieron desaparecer. Ninguno regresó. Estos no son cuentos populares ni mitos de taberna. Son testimonios reales, firmados por hombres que juraron decir la verdad. Fechas precisas. Lugares concretos. Voces que regresan desde las sombras de la guerra. Porque cuando la guerra abre las puertas del más allá… no todos los fantasmas vienen del pasado. Prepárate para marchar entre soldados... y entre fantasmas. HAZTE MECENAS, no dejes que La Biblioteca, cierre Nunca sus Puertas… Sigamos sumando en LLDLL, SUSCRIBETE en IVOOX y comparte. GRATITUD ESPECIAL: Siempre a los MECENAS. Sin ustedes… esto no sería posible. SUSCRIBETE AL CANAL DE TELEGRAM: https://t.me/LaLamadaDeLaLuna PUEDES VER ALGUNOS VIDEOS DE LLDLL: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEOtdbbriLqUfBtjs_wtEHw Escucha el episodio completo en la app de iVoox, o descubre todo el catálogo de iVoox Originals

VIII A lo largo de la historia, miles de soldados han sido testigos de lo inexplicable en medio del horror de la guerra. Fantasmas y Militares, rescatamos esos relatos olvidados, a veces silenciados, donde lo sobrenatural aparece justo cuando la muerte acecha. Desde las trincheras de la Primera Guerra Mundial hasta la jungla vietnamita, desde las aguas del Atlántico hasta los cielos de Europa, dramatización de historias reales: desapariciones, apariciones, objetos voladores, criaturas imposibles y testimonios que desafían toda lógica. Cada episodio une historia militar con fenómenos paranormales documentados. Aquí no encontrarás ficción, sino voces que regresan del frente con verdades que nadie quiso escuchar. En cada campo de batalla, más allá del estruendo de las bombas y las órdenes gritadas al viento, hay historias que no figuran en los partes oficiales. Testimonios sellados por el silencio, por el miedo… o por lo imposible. Este podcast rescata esos relatos, donde lo sobrenatural se entrelaza con la guerra. En las oscuras junglas de Vietnam, en agosto de 1969, tres marines estadounidenses patrullaban el perímetro de su campamento en Da Nang, cuando una figura alada surgió entre los árboles. No era un helicóptero. No era el Vietcong. Aquello parecía salido de una pesadilla. Viajaremos también a Ypres, en Bélgica, en plena Primera Guerra Mundial, donde un soldado, agazapado en la trinchera, dijo haber visto a su madre entre el humo del gas mostaza. No gritaba. Solo miraba. En los Países Bajos, a finales de 1585, un destacamento de los Tercios españoles fue rodeado por las aguas al ser inundada la isla de Bommel. El enemigo creía tenerlos atrapados. Pero durante la noche, un soldado encontró algo bajo tierra… a partir de ese momento, la historia cambió. En la batalla de Agincourt, en 1415, se cuenta que una niebla espesa descendió sobre el campo francés. Entre las sombras, algunos juraron ver figuras con arcos medievales, vestidas como en los tiempos de las cruzadas. Arqueros sin cuerda. Flechas que no mataban… pero paralizaban. Siglos después, durante la Primera Guerra Mundial, en el frente de Mons, soldados británicos dijeron ver aquellas mismas figuras cruzando entre el humo y el barro. ¿Fue solo propaganda o realmente regresaron? En la Segunda Guerra Mundial, un enorme B-17, bombardero estadounidense, descendió sobre territorio aliado. Sus motores funcionaban. Su tren de aterrizaje estaba desplegado. Pero ocurrió algo que no tiene sentido. También conocerás el caso del submarino UB-85, interceptado en abril de 1918 por un buque británico en el Mar del Norte. La tripulación alemana se lanzó al mar, desesperada. Cuando fueron interrogados, dijeron que algo había emergido del océano la noche anterior… En Gallípoli, 1915, durante la campaña del Dardanelos, un batallón británico marchó hacia una formación extraña, una nube densa en tierra firme. 250 soldados entraron Observadores neozelandeses los vieron desaparecer. Ninguno regresó. Estos no son cuentos populares ni mitos de taberna. Son testimonios reales, firmados por hombres que juraron decir la verdad. Fechas precisas. Lugares concretos. Voces que regresan desde las sombras de la guerra. Porque cuando la guerra abre las puertas del más allá… no todos los fantasmas vienen del pasado. Prepárate para marchar entre soldados... y entre fantasmas. HAZTE MECENAS, no dejes que La Biblioteca, cierre Nunca sus Puertas… Sigamos sumando en LLDLL, SUSCRIBETE en IVOOX y comparte. GRATITUD ESPECIAL: Siempre a los MECENAS. Sin ustedes… esto no sería posible. SUSCRIBETE AL CANAL DE TELEGRAM: https://t.me/LaLamadaDeLaLuna PUEDES VER ALGUNOS VIDEOS DE LLDLL: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEOtdbbriLqUfBtjs_wtEHw

Au printemps 1965, les États-Unis basculent dans une guerre qui ne dit pas encore son nom. L'opération Rolling Thunder, déclenchée le 2 mars 1965, marque le début de la première grande campagne aérienne américaine contre le Nord-Vietnam. Officiellement, il ne s'agit pas d'entrer en guerre totale, mais de faire plier Hanoï par la puissance du feu. En réalité, cette opération va engager les États-Unis dans l'engrenage d'un conflit de plus en plus vaste, sans jamais atteindre ses objectifs stratégiques.Le contexte est celui d'une escalade. Depuis le retrait de la France en 1954, le Vietnam est divisé : au nord, un régime communiste soutenu par l'URSS et la Chine ; au sud, un régime pro-américain fragile, miné par la corruption. Le Nord-Vietnam, dirigé par Hô Chi Minh, soutient activement la guérilla du Viet Cong dans le Sud. En 1964, l'incident du golfe du Tonkin permet au président Lyndon B. Johnson d'obtenir du Congrès le feu vert pour utiliser la force militaire.Rolling Thunder débute quelques mois plus tard. L'idée est simple : bombarder massivement les infrastructures nord-vietnamiennes – routes, ponts, chemins de fer, bases militaires, usines, dépôts de carburant – pour affaiblir le soutien logistique au Viet Cong et forcer le régime de Hanoï à négocier.Mais sur le terrain, rien ne se passe comme prévu. Malgré plus de 300 000 missions aériennes menées en trois ans, et le largage de plus d'un million de tonnes de bombes, l'effet stratégique reste limité. Le Nord-Vietnam, soutenu logistiquement par la Chine et l'URSS, s'adapte : les cibles sont rapidement réparées, les convois circulent la nuit, et les routes sont détournées. La population, loin de se soumettre, renforce sa résistance.Paradoxalement, Rolling Thunder pousse les États-Unis à s'engager davantage au sol. En 1965, les premières troupes combattantes américaines débarquent. Le nombre de soldats américains au Vietnam passe de 23 000 en 1964 à plus de 500 000 en 1968. Le conflit devient alors une véritable guerre totale, avec son lot de violences, de controverses, et de divisions à l'intérieur même des États-Unis.En mars 1968, à la veille de l'offensive du Têt, Rolling Thunder est suspendue. L'Amérique a usé son aviation, sans briser la détermination du Nord-Vietnam.L'opération Rolling Thunder reste aujourd'hui l'un des exemples les plus frappants de la limite de la puissance aérienne face à une guerre asymétrique. Elle a préparé le terrain non pas à la victoire, mais à l'enlisement d'une guerre que les États-Unis ne savaient plus comment gagner… ni comment en sortir. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

LBJ kicks off Project Head Start; Queen Elizabeth visits West Berlin; U.S. destroyers shell the Viet Cong; John Lindsay runs for Mayor of NYC; Muhammad Ali defends his title. Newscaster: Joe Rubenstein.   Support this project on Patreon!

THIS WEEK! We take a look at The Vietnam War. From the French Leaving Vietnam as a Colonial Power, to the training of ARVN troops, the political impact of The Vietnam War, and what made the Vietcong such firece fighters compared to ARVN troops? Find out all this, and much more on "Well That Aged Well", with "Erlend Hedegart".Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/well-that-aged-well. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Doug Greenlaw sees his life as a series of "lightning strikes." He was literally struck by lightning when he was 13 years old, thankfully making an immediate recovery. He later left Indiana University to join the Army, become an officer, and serve in in the Vietnam War - first as a platoon commander and then as a company commander. He arrived in Vietnam in 1967.In this edition of Veterans Chronicles, Greenlaw takes us through his training, including a terrifying story from jungle training, and through his most harrowing moments in Vietnam. Greenlaw details the events of Thanksgiving Day 1967, when his platoon was dropped off in the wrong spot and quickly found itself facing a North Vietnamese battalion of 400-500 fighters. He explains the actions he took to keep his men alive until air and ground support could arrive - and he describes hand-to-hand fighting with an enemy officer in a North Vietnamese tunnel.Greenlaw also tells us his responsibilities and priorities as a platoon and company commander and how he and his men painstakingly looked out for enemy booby traps and explosives. He also reveals the extensive injuries he suffered after a soldier in his company tripped one of those wires.We'll also hear how Greenlaw's military service impacted his impressive rise as a sales and marketing executive, all the way to the top of MTV, Nickelodeon, and VH-1.Finally, we'll learn about Greenlaw's leadership with the Military Order of the Purple Heart, from leading his local chapter to serving as national commander for two years.

L'histoire de Pham Xuân An est digne d'un roman d'espionnage, sauf qu'elle est entièrement vraie. Pendant des décennies, cet homme a mené une double vie extraordinaire : journaliste respecté à Saïgon pour des médias occidentaux comme Time Magazine, il était en réalité un agent secret du Viet Cong, travaillant dans l'ombre pour le renseignement nord-vietnamien.Né en 1927 au Vietnam, Pham Xuân An est envoyé aux États-Unis dans les années 1950 pour étudier le journalisme à l'université d'Orange Coast College en Californie. C'est un homme cultivé, charismatique et très à l'aise dans les cercles américains. De retour au Vietnam, il devient correspondant pour plusieurs grandes agences de presse étrangères, gagnant rapidement la confiance de diplomates, d'officiers américains et de journalistes de renom. Il est perçu comme un observateur objectif, modéré, bien informé. En réalité, il mène une mission secrète bien plus audacieuse.Pham Xuân An était un espion au service du Nord-Vietnam, infiltré au cœur de l'élite politique et militaire sud-vietnamienne. Grâce à son statut de journaliste, il avait accès à des informations confidentielles, des rapports militaires, et des conversations privées de hauts responsables américains. Il retranscrivait tout cela en messages codés ou en microfilms, qu'il faisait parvenir à Hanoï via des messagers clandestins. Il a notamment transmis des données stratégiques sur les opérations américaines pendant la guerre du Vietnam, influençant directement certaines batailles clés.Ce qui rend son histoire fascinante, c'est la manière dont il a maintenu sa couverture pendant des décennies, même après la chute de Saïgon en 1975. Alors que d'autres espions sont démasqués ou éliminés, lui reste discret, protégé par son image publique de journaliste patriote. Ce n'est qu'après la guerre que son rôle réel commence à émerger. En 1976, il est officiellement nommé général dans les services de renseignement du Vietnam, une reconnaissance tardive mais immense.Beaucoup de ses anciens collègues journalistes furent abasourdis à la révélation de sa véritable identité. Certains se sentirent trahis, d'autres lui gardèrent leur estime, reconnaissant qu'il avait toujours fait preuve d'une éthique personnelle, ne mentant jamais plus que nécessaire et n'ayant jamais mis leurs vies en danger.Pham Xuân An est mort en 2006, honoré comme un héros national au Vietnam. Son histoire interroge profondément la frontière entre loyauté, trahison, et devoir. Il incarne l'archétype parfait de l'espion invisible : un homme effacé, brillant, qui a su manipuler la réalité avec une redoutable intelligence — sans jamais perdre son calme ni sa foi dans la cause qu'il servait. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

One of the short films, "Doldrums" will have its San Diego premiere Friday. It follows a Vietnam War veteran haunted by memories of the soldiers he led and the Viet Cong medic who saved his life.

Donnie Trump – what a joker, huh?Remember his promise to end Russia's war against Ukraine on Day One of his presidency? No joke, he bragged: “It'll be done within 24 hours. You watch.”Well, here we are at Day One Hundred, with the war still raging. So Trump either lied… or failed. But The Donald had a Joker up his sleeve – he now claims that, “when I said [Day One] it was in jest.”Horsefeathers. First it was a core campaign promise, which he talked about at length in at least 53 of his widely publicized events (including two nationally-televised) debates. Second, he repeatedly assured his MAGA devotees that he was not joking, but literally would end Putin's war in a day.He became the joke, because he knows nothing about war and has surrounded himself with Fox News blowhards who know even less. I don't mean that as an idle put-down, but as a screaming civil-defense warning of incoming danger. Unbeknownst to nearly all of us, Commander Trump and his menagerie of macho ne'er-do-wells are quietly-but-rapidly pulling America once again into the Big Muddy.They've blundered into another “forever war,” dumping billions of our dollars into high-tech bombing raids against Houthi militia. Who? Houthis are tenacious guerilla fighters in the small impoverished nation of Yemen. Like the Viet Cong some 60 years ago, they are clever and resilient – and they're confounding arrogant White House and Pentagon autocrats who keep thinking they can bomb their way to world domination.As Pete Seeger put it in his Big Muddy song, “The big fool says to push on.” But we don't have to obey. To push back, go to PeoplesAction.org.Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

Show SummaryOn today's episode, we're featuring a conversation with Navy Veterans Jamie Yslas and Daniel Bernardi. Jamie and Daniel join the show to talk about the 10th annual GI Film Festival San Diego happening May 7-9, 2025 at the Museum of Photographic Arts at the San Diego Museum of ArtProvide FeedbackAs a dedicated member of the audience, we would like to hear from you about the show. Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts about the show in this short feedback survey. By doing so, you will be entered to receive a signed copy of one of our host's three books on military and veteran mental health. About Today's GuestsJaime Yslas is a U.S. Navy veteran and does volunteer workwith San Diego area veteran service organizations. Jaime spent 32 years with the U.S. Navy in the field of electronic warfare and intelligence. His service record includes deployments with surface, subsurface and aviation forces as well as numerous headquarters assignments. He is a member of the San Diego Veterans Coalition which fosters collaboration among veteran advocates.Daniel Leonard Bernardi is a documentary filmmaker, cultural studies scholar and veteran of the Iraq War. His research explores the representation and narration of race in American film and television, and includes the award-winning book Star Trek and History: Race-ing Toward a White Future. His 2018 film, The American War, tells the story of the Vietnam War from the point of view of the Vietcong. His other films explore a wide range of subjects, from the diversity of the veteran experience to the role of science in the lives of today's citizenry. He earned his doctorate from the School of Theatre, Film and Television at UCLALinks Mentioned in this Episode GI Film Festival San Diego Web SiteEl Dorado Films Web SitePsychArmor Resource of the WeekThis week's resource of the week is the Behind the Mission Podcast Episode 215,  Steven Grayhm and Matt Dallas – SHEEPDOG the Movie and Posttraumatic Growth. Our guests worked on the movie together, which is a film that explores the physical and psychological repercussions of trauma with a focus on Posttraumatic Growth.   You can find the resource here:  https://psycharmor.org/podcast/steven-grayhm-and-matt-dallas Episode Partner: This week's episode is brought to you by Humana, a leading health and well-being company that has joined forces with PsychArmor to develop campaigns and courses that support veterans and their families in achieving their best health. To learn more about how Humana honors and serves veterans visit healthequity.humana.com/veterans” Contact Us and Join Us on Social Media Email PsychArmorPsychArmor on TwitterPsychArmor on FacebookPsychArmor on YouTubePsychArmor on LinkedInPsychArmor on InstagramTheme MusicOur theme music Don't Kill the Messenger was written and performed by Navy Veteran Jerry Maniscalco, in cooperation with Operation Encore, a non profit committed to supporting singer/songwriter and musicians across the military and Veteran communities.Producer and Host Duane France is a retired Army Noncommissioned Officer, combat veteran, and clinical mental health counselor for service members, veterans, and their families.  You can find more about the work that he is doing at www.veteranmentalhealth.com  

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service about the Vietnam War and the invention of the hugely popular mobile phone game, Snake. Don Anderson, a former BBC TV reporter during the final days of Vietnam, discusses the atmosphere in Saigon as the North Vietnamese forces closed in. We also hear about the network of tunnels in the south of the country which Viet Cong guerrillas built during the fighting. Finally, the former president of the European Commission and two-time prime minister of Italy, Romano Prodi on steering through the ten-state expansion of the European Union in 2004.Contributors:Le Van Lang - a Viet Cong veteran.Dr Xuan Dung Tran - a doctor in the South Vietnamese Marines. Don Anderson - former BBC TV reporter.Phạm Chi Lan - economist at Vietnam's Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Romano Prodi - former president of the European Commission and two-time prime minister of Italy.Taneli Armanto - mobile phone game Snake, inventor.(Photo: Viet Cong soldier inside the Cu Chi tunnels. Credit: Dirck Halstead/Getty Images)

During the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese VietCong guerrillas built a vast network of tunnels in the south of the country as part of the insurgency against the South Vietnamese government and their American allies. The tunnel network was a key base and shelter for the North Vietnamese army in their victory in the war in 1975. In 2017 Alex Last spoke to Le Van Lang, a Viet Cong veteran who helped construct the tunnels in the Cu Chi District, which is 20km north of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City). Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic' and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy's Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they've had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America's occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.(Photo: A former VietCong soldier in the tunnels in 1978. Credit: Jean-Claude LABBE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

Darrell Castle talks about the war in which Europe currently finds itself as well as the seemingly inevitable war against Iran and its affiliates. Transcription / Notes WAR LASTS FOREVER Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 25th day of April in the year of our Lord 2025. I talk of war today as we are about two weeks away from May 8th which is the 80th anniversary of the German surrender in WWll or what became known as victory in Europe Day. I speak today not of the German surrender but of the war in which Europe still finds itself as well as the seemingly inevitable war against Iran and its affiliates. It is very easy to get into a war and so very hard to get out of one. The efforts to resolve the conflict between Ukraine and Russia have become more difficult because neither side has been defeated. They have killed each other and invented new technological methods of warfare but neither is in a position of absolute defeat. Many seem disappointed that the war might end and they look for ways to make it continue. The only way it can continue is if the United States and Europe remain committed by supplying the money and hardware the Ukrainians need to continue the struggle. Even if the U.S. decided to continue the supply chain the Ukrainians are running out of bodies. Even U.S. money and weapons might not be enough and so some are urging the use of U.S. and European troops to continue the fight against Russia. France seems to be seriously considering the idea. I have read that the usual argument in favor of U.S. commitment is that China is supplying Russia and some Chinese officers have been captured inside Ukraine where they were apparently learning about the incredible drone warfare campaign Ukraine has developed. I guess you don't need so many bodies if you can fight each other with robots. The situation in Ukraine reminds me of the U.S. efforts to extricate itself from Vietnam. Once again it's easy to get into but hard to get out of. The U.S. was never defeated militarily and U.S. troops were not defeated on the battlefield but neither did the U.S. win and so by not winning it lost. History is filled with examples of committed guerilla forces fighting and winning against technologically superior forces. The American colonists against the British Empire for example. The more powerful force, usually with long supply lines, grows ever more exhausted and the war appears unwinnable so they simply look for a way to quit, but sometimes the guerillas will not allow them to quit and keep their dignity. President Trump now finds himself in the position of fulfilling his promise of ending the war but the war is a lot more important to Ukraine and Russia than it is to the United States. The stated reasons for U.S. involvement, i.e. to weaken Russia have failed and it appears Russia is more resilient than previously thought. It appears to be the same situation the U.S. found itself in as it tried to leave Vietnam. The Viet Cong achieved their goals of uniting their country under their rule and the U.S. finally decided to accept that and just go. The Ukrainian situation has similarities because Russia occupies Crimea and several provinces in the Eastern border region of Ukraine proper, while Ukraine still occupies some positions inside Russia although not many. Ironically, this Kursk frontier is the exact same region where the Russians fought invading Nazis during WWll. Not much changes except technology because human nature never changes. Vice President Vance conveyed the President's thoughts about efforts to end the struggle in that if his final offer is rejected the U.S. might simply abandon the process. If the U.S. went away and took its bombs and bullets with it then Zelensky and Putin could resolve matters on their own. The U.S. negotiating team seems to be growing weary as Secretary of State Rubio has stepped back from it, according to J.D. Vance.

Send us a textRalph Pezzullo was born in New York City. When he was five years old his father joined the Foreign Service of the State Department. His job took them to Mexico, South Vietnam, Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala, Uruguay and Nicaragua. They lived in Saigon during the Tonkin Gulf Incident, the overthrow of Diem, a number of other coup d'etats and almost daily Vietcong terrorist attacks against Americans. After that, they survived three years gasping for air at 13,000 feet in La Paz, Bolivia during the time that Che Guevarra was trying to build a guerrilla base in that country. By 1980 his father was the US Ambassador to Nicaragua, and Ralph was there witnessing the first days of the Sandinista Revolution.These experiences molded him. He saw how political instability could throw peoples' lives into chaos and test their character. In his teenage years he became a sounding board for his father's opinions on how to best formulate and carry out US foreign policy.  Many of his friends were other diplomats, CIA agents, and military attaches. Through observing them, Ralph developed an appreciation of the unique kinds of challenges US representatives faced in nations where our interests and cultural perspective often sharply differed from theirs.In 2004, shortly after moving his family to Los Angeles, he received an email from a gentleman who said he was a clandestine US intelligence operative and wanted to collaborate with him. The book they wrote together about the CIA-led operation to overthrow the Taliban in late 2001, called Jawbreaker, was published in 2005 and appeared on numerous bestseller lists. Following Jawbreaker, he started to receive calls and emails from other former government officials – DEA and FBI agents, police detectives, Special Forces soldiers, and Navy SEALs – who had interesting stories to tell. He helped turn some of them into bestselling books, including Most Evil and Inside SEAL Team Six.All of these courageous individuals had experienced conflict and human suffering first hand, and had their core beliefs tested. Their views often clashed with policy makers, who saw the same conflicts through the lens of bureaucratic politics. Many of his co-authors had experienced the same phenomena – how time after time our political and culture myopia, or inability to fully grasp the importance of local history, language, and culture, had led to bad decision-making and caused us to be ineffective.His new book is called Stolen Elections: The Plot to Destroy DemocracyBased on a four-year investigation into election fraud by two top government whistleblowers, including CIA hero Gary Berntsen.Their conclusion: Enemies of the United States including Venezuela, Cuba, China and Serbia have been determining the results of elections in the U.S. since 2006 through the use of electronic systems that they have developed. Using these systems, they now manipulate the results of elections in 72 countries around the world.We discuss Ralph's unique upbringing in various war-torn countries, which shaped his worldview and understanding of U.S. foreign policy. The conversation delves into the importance of cultural understanding in international relations, the hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the implications of the military-industrial complex. He is also the host of the popular podcast Heroes Behind Headlines.Find out more at http://ralphpezzulloauthor.com/ Support the show

“This shocking expose of the CIA operation aimed at destroying the Vietcong infrastructure thoroughly conveys the hideousness of the Vietnam War” (Publishers Weekly).In the darkest days of the Vietnam War, America's Central Intelligence Agency secretly initiated a sweeping program of kidnap, torture, and assassination devised to destabilize the infrastructure of the National Liberation Front (NLF) of South Vietnam, commonly known as the “Viet Cong.” The victims of the Phoenix Program were Vietnamese civilians, male and female, suspected of harboring information about the enemy—though many on the blacklist were targeted by corrupt South Vietnamese security personnel looking to extort money or remove a rival. Between 1965 and 1972, more than eighty thousand noncombatants were “neutralized,” as men and women alike were subjected to extended imprisonment without trial, horrific torture, brutal rape, and in many cases execution, all under the watchful eyes of US government agencies.Based on extensive research and in-depth interviews with former participants and observers, Douglas Valentine's startling exposé blows the lid off of what was possibly the bloodiest and most inhumane covert operation in the CIA's history.The ebook edition includes “The Phoenix Has Landed,” a new introduction that addresses the “Phoenix-style network” that constitutes America's internal security apparatus today. Residents on American soil are routinely targeted under the guise of protecting us from terrorism—which is why, more than ever, people need to understand what Phoenix is all about.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.

In this thirtieth installment of fictional horror written and narrated by Dan Cummins.... we head to the tropical jungle of Vietnam's Annamese mountains. On a dark, rainy night in January of 1968, PsyWar Detachment Six - a six-man team and part of the US military's shadowy MACV-SOG Command - was conducting black operations meant to terrify and break the spirits of the Viet Cong. But in the end, no one will be scared more than the soldiers themselves... This episode was scored by Logan Keith. We recommend listening with headphones to experience the full effect of all the creepy background noises! If you like this episode, please let us know wherever you rate and review podcasts. Thanks so much!For Merch and everything else Bad Magic related, head to: https://www.badmagicproductions.com

The Atlantic posts the receipts, Kristi Noem goes full Viet Cong, and Tulsi Gabbard either lied to Congress or needs a doctor. Plus Barbie Ferreira and Jared Goldstein join to talk theater etiquette, social media insecurities, and the moments in our lives when we fired off errant texts of our own.Upcoming shows: crooked.com/events

Delmar Beard grew up near Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. But when it was time to join the military during World War II, he chose the Navy. Serving as a gunner aboard an LST, Beard made multiple landings during the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Later, he did join the Army, and served for 22 years. He rose to the rank of command sergeant major and was deployed to both Korea and Vietnam.In this edition of Veterans Chronicles, Beard takes us from training to landing at Iwo Jima. He describes unloading the ship while Japanese bullets were whizzing around him and even fatally striking the sailor right next to him. He also tells us what he saw on the beach and in the hills and mountains above.From there, Beard tells us about operating the 40mm double-barreled anti-aircraft guns during the relentless Japanese air raids and kamikaze missions against the U.S. fleet. Finally, he takes us to Vietnam. Beard explains his command over a series of gun batteries stretching from Quin Yon to the DMZ and some of the most difficult moments of his time there.

Ralph welcomes Peter Beinart, to discuss his book Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza. An observant Jew, Beinart argues “We are not history's permanent virtuous victims. We are not hardwired to forever endure evil but never commit it.” Plus, premier global trade expert, Lori Wallach, joins to help sort out the on again, off again tariffs Donald Trump is assessing U.S. trade partners. What kind of a tool is a tariff? When should it be used? Who should it be used against? And are the current tariff threats on Canada really about stopping fentanyl?Peter Beinart is Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the Newmark School of Journalism at the City University of New York. He is also Editor-at-Large of Jewish Currents, an MSNBC political commentator, a frequent contributor to The New York Times, and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. His latest book is entitled “Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza” and his recent op-ed in the New York Times is “States Don't Have a Right To Exist. People Do.”We are not history's permanent virtuous victims. We are not hardwired to forever endure evil but never commit it. That false innocence, which pervades contemporary Jewish life, camouflages domination as self-defense. It exempts Jews from external judgment. It offers infinite license to fallible human beings.Excerpt from Being Jewish After The Destruction of Gaza by Peter BeinartIsrael can't destroy Hamas. Israel has totally laid waste to Gaza, and yet Hamas is still there. And Hamas will have new recruits from all of these people whose family members were killed by Israel. And Hamas will reconstitute its weapons, because I think actually a lot of the Hamas weapons now are coming from assembling Israeli weapons that were dropped on Gaza, just like the Viet Cong did in Vietnam. They reassemble to make their own weapons. So Hamas will still be there as a force for Israel to continue to fight. And I think Netanyahu will continue this war for as long as he can.Peter BeinartSo what I think Israel is trying to do, to various degrees of self-consciousness, is to try to reduce the population in Gaza and the West Bank. And that's why the Trump plan was so popular in Israel, not just among Netanyahu, but even among his centrist opponents, like Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, who embraced the idea. Because for them, it solves the problem. Israel doesn't have a way of solving the Palestinian problem. So if you have fewer Palestinians, then they're less of a problem. This is, after all, how the United States solved its problem with Native Americans in the 19th century.Peter BeinartLori Wallach is a 30-year veteran of international and U.S. congressional trade battles starting with the 1990s fights over NAFTA and WTO where she founded the Global Trade Watch group at Public Citizen. She is now the director of the Rethink Trade program at American Economic Liberties Project and is also Senior Advisor to the Citizens Trade Campaign, the U.S. national trade justice coalition of unions and environmental, consumer, faith, family farm and other groups.He (Trump) also closed a thing called the de minimis loophole. That is this lunatic trade loophole that allows in uninspected (under $800 value) imports to every American every day… And then four days later, Trump met with the Federal Express CEO, who apparently was not happy because they deliver a bunch of those de minimis packages… This has become a superhighway for fentanyl… He (Trump) basically reversed the ability to stop fentanyl coming from China and to enforce his own China tariffs at the behest of the CEO of Federal Express.Lori WallachSo the difference between whether tariffs raise the consumer price has a lot to do with the same corporate price gouging that we've been seeing over the last couple of years. And we can see right now, for instance, on eggs. The actual supply of egg laying chickens and the actual supply of eggs is not a greatly reduced sector. That sector is now so concentrated at every level that the handful of companies can basically control the markup between what the farmers paid and what the consumer pays.Lori Wallach Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Gregory "Matt" Dillon was required to enroll in ROTC at the University of Alabama. Upon graduation, he was required to give two years in the U.S. Army. He ended up serving 24 years, including three tours in Vietnam. He served as operations officer for then-Lt. Col. Hal Moore with the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, 1st Air Cavalry Division at the vicious battle of Landing Zone X-Ray in November 1965 In this edition of Veterans Chronicles, Col. Dillon explains the events that led up to the Battle of Ia Drang, how the fighting began, the saga of the lost platoon, the enemy's relentless assault on the second day of the battle, and how American air power proved to be a descisive factor in winning the battle.Dillon notes the heroism of the men who fought there and the tremendous leadership of Hal Moore. He also describes the actions in July 1969 that resulted in him receiving the Silver Star. And Dillon describes rescuing wounded men under heavy fire, the enemy AK-47 that he collected and thought he lost forever, and much more.

A special forces recon team sent to hijack a North Vietnamese supply truck must fight for their survival after their mission is compromised.

The agents head to Saigon to investigate the possible resurgence of a Cthulhu cult and a summit of heroin trafickers. Saigon is technically behind the frontlines, but between gangsters, cultists, and Viet Cong guerillas, it's as deadly as any battlefield. Caleb as Eli Munny, special forces Aaron as Gina Tan, CIA translator Tom as Marcus Abrams, ex-Army pilot Chris as David Nelson, FBI agent