Working on this war without trying to negotiate an end. I had come back from paris, we were trying to do the exact thing. But you couldnt mention it. Couldnt mention it. Whose decision was it to make these talks secret . So was it so you could advance more who had the courage to do it. We felt you cannot make progress, propaganda, with the whole world watching. Youve got to do it secretly. I think the North Vietnamese werent that interested in negotiations, except as a tactic to wear us out or to see whether we could make the kind of deal they could live with. They didnt want to accused by the vietcong and others of being overly soft. What do you think, joe . I think here winston and i may differ slightly. I think its important to have secret negotiations. They accompany almost any negotiation about a serious issue. But i think henry had a somewhat expansive view of that, which is keeping it secret. Thats a different issue. I meant the public. I understand. My point is, for him secret negotiations also meant not telling the state department or pentagon or keeping them somewhat in the dark. Lets explore that a little while. On one hand you were negotiating, and you were exhausted, negotiating in good faith. Everything you seemed to try wasnt working. You were getting beaten up in the press, called you baby killers. It was a terrible time. Yet at the same time you were keeping i guess president nixon had the courage to take that because he thought it was the most effective way to negotiate an end to the war. But talk to me about why was it kept secret from the rest of the government . Was that essential do you think . Because everything leaks in washington. And thats the quick answer. Nixon and kissinger particularly. And henry, for both good and ill, was very possessive of our National Security and diplomatic he only could be because nixon was possessive. Theres not been anybody since Henry Kissinger who has had as much authority or power over our National Security, no one individual. Either in the state department anywhere. It was incredibly difficult. Again, you have to see the mood of the country at the time. It was simply incredibly difficult to keep a secret. Because of the passions of the issue. Yes. It would have leaked immediately. The word passions is a very modest word. I might add one other thing. Well get to this a little later, but when the secret talks became known, then we had sort of semi secret talks, namely in 1972, which well get to, we would not announce in advance we were having talks. We would secretly go over and have the talks, but then afterwards we and the North Vietnamese would brief the press on what was happening. They were secret in the sense that nobody would know what was going on other than the sanitized briefings. 69, 70, 71, escalation negotiations. Nothing seems to happen. When did the break through come . Were now at the middle 1971, kissinger made a secret trip to china. Did that change everything . I think we have to back up for a second. First, im checking the chronology. We had the laos incursion. Ill let the others handle that. It was a waste of time. But again, it was china. Again, the basic point they had these sanctuaries. The quick answer is it was the South Vietnamese expedition essentially with our support because of the constrictions of congress, and it wasnt very effective. So then, what happened, very significant. Thats why we have to stop for a minute. May 1971. You had a secret meeting in which we set forth obviously with nixons full approval what essentially became the agreement a year and a half later. It essentially was the following. It was a militaryonly agreement. The North Vietnamese positions from the very beginning until the breakthrough that well get to was not only are we supposed to withdraw unilaterally, but as we leave vietnam, were supposed to over throw the government and install a coalition government. And not force them to leave. As i said, unilaterally. That was their position. Nixon was prepared to have a military only solution, but he was not prepared to overthrow an ally for all the reasons of world credibility, morality and sacrifice. The may proposal and this is very important for history because a lot of revisionists saying we could have had the final agreement earlier. We couldnt have had it because until the break through in october of 72, North Vietnamese insisted on replacing the the government. In may 71 we put a sevenpoint plan forward consisting of the following, unilateral withdraw but no further infiltration across the dmz of any more North Vietnamese troops, a ceasefire, get our prisoners back, independence and ceasefire in laos and cambodia and international supervision. That is essentially what the final paris accords look like. We put that forward, and for the first time, the North Vietnamese began to take us they see there was something to negotiate, but they continue to hang on to the political settlement dimension. So we couldnt strike a deal because that to us was dishonorable and so on. They wouldnt budge on that. So these promising negotiations, of the seven points we sort of agreed on five or five and a half with a lot of details to come on. We couldnt get to the seventh which was the political future of South Vietnam as to be determined by the vietnamese themselves. It doesnt mean overthrowing the government. And so we then ran into an impasse even though we had some hopes. It included the opening of china. Henrys secret trip was in july 71. Coming back, dick smyser was on that trip with me. And as we came back from the secret trip to china, it was a public trip generally including a stop in paris. Ill let dick give some of the color of how we managed to pull that secret negotiation off in paris on our way back. This is before the president announced secret trip to china. We stopped off in paris publicly. Dick, you might explain how we managed to have a secret negotiation in paris. Well, we had henry having dinner with an attractive young lady who was a correspondent in paris, and that provided a cover for our business. Because since he was having this dinner with this woman, nobody suspected that he might also be having a negotiation with the vietnamese. He was wildly criticized being out with a date. Everybody knew that leonard toe was in town. And why is henry seeing this woman who was a reporter for the New York Times or one of these papers, why is henry having dinner with this woman instead of meeting with leonard toe. Which in fact he had been doing only an hour earlier. But this is the kind of mood that existed at the time it was crazy. There was one very important point, which i think i focused on more than anybody else, though it later became moot, and that was that when henry said that we would do a unilateral withdrawal, that was the first time that we went into the negotiating session with the North Vietnamese at their private villa, that they had tables for us to negotiate. Up until that time we had sat in chairs like this, and the North Vietnamese did not think that was a real negotiation. But once henry said we are prepared to withdraw unilaterally they said, aha, they have come to one of our most basic points and, therefore, we will now have a table. Its these Little Things, again you know, diplomacy is a funny game. You look for Little Things that tell you a great deal about what is behind the thinking of people who are not ready to articulate it. Its kind of tricky. But on the other hand its absolutely essential. Ill quickly mention that when the pentagon papers were released, leaked out, and they were just a review of vietnam situation, military and diplomatic, during the johnson and kennedy years. It had nothing to do with nixon. It wasnt any embarrassment to nixon. He got hammered for opposing the leak of these papers as if he was trying to cover things up. It was just making his predecessors look bad. He felt it was an important principle, one to only classify documents. Him and kissinger were particularly upset. Because june 71 was precisely a month before we were going to china secretly and were in the middle of these promising negotiations with the vietnamese. So they were doing this on behalf of their successors where you try to keep some relevant secrets but also the timing was atrocious. Are you going to talk about china . Yeah, were now getting to that. In fall of 1971 you think things are going well, but the North Vietnamese, you detect, are gearing up for another offensive. Right. Then lets go to 1972. That was the momentous year for a lot of reason as professor smyser pointed out, nixon went in february, moscow in june. He went to moscow the end of april. The watergate breakin occurred at roughly the same time. And then in november there was a landslide reelection of nixon. I know we have to get through this, but weve got to circle back to the spring of 71 when the North Vietnamese unleashed a major offensive spring of 72. But they were gearing up to it by the end of 1971. Lets go through 1972. That was the big year. January 72 nixon goes public with the secret talks. He gave a speech january 25th because in the preceding month, despite this promise over the summer with the sevenpoint plan, the North Vietnamese began to back away, delayed any further talks, started gearing up for a military offensive and we would continue to get hammered by our domestic audiences about not negotiating seriously. He decided we had to finally go public with the fact that we had been negotiating for two or three years and it was North Vietnam, and he laid out a sevenpoint plans to make clear how reasonable we were and put pressure on hanoi. It did rally American Public opinion a great deal. For a while. For a while. So thats january. Thats january. The North Vietnamese did not respond. They launched this offensive. We had one last chance and a secret trip to moscow. Let me pick up before that, because that is critical. Its i believe march 30th of 1972 that they launch the offensive. It was easter, and there are a lot of catholics in vietnam. It was called the easter offensive. And it was major, frontally, it was right across the dmz. They actually came up against a pretty good ar vent division, and we knew everything we had at this offensive, and actually over a period of time succeeded in turning it around. It was not a bad test of vietnamization. It required a lot of our air support. But it was a major, major effort and a precursor of what ultimately happened in vietnam. The North Vietnamese were willing to send conventional forces across the border. Lets go back one month. It was the 1972 february trip where nixon went to china. You went with him. What impact did that have on vietnam, if any . We do know the chinese weighed in with the vietnamese, but not in a way that would be overly pressuring. This was to have our relationship with china not complicated by the vietnam war with american troops on the border. They wanted to balance the soviet union and we knew we wouldnt be an effective global balance. The chinese had an interest in having us end this war. We tried to make clear to them, henry did i think with success, that were willing to get out and get our prisoners back and ceasefire, not willing to overthrow the government. Its not in our interest to make the u. S. Look like an unreliable ally because you want us to help balance the soviets. We know the chinese took some trips to hanoi and did weigh in. They probably said wait the americans out, get them out of vietnam, dont insist on manipulation in the political settlement. In a few years saigon will fall in your laps anyway. Goo a go ahead, excuse me no, go ahead. I dont want to dominate too much here. We also also with the russians the secret trip in april to set up the may summit with the russians, another isolation of hanoi. We try to get them to get the vietnamese to meet with us. Already the offensive was taking place. We had one may 2nd meeting with North Vietnam we got nowhere. As a result of this we decided to bomb hanoi and mine hai fong. This is an important point. The chronology is nixon goes in february. The North Vietnamese invade South Vietnam in a spring offensive a month later. Youre already negotiating with a planned trip to moscow to have nixon go visit moscow for the moscow summit. The North Vietnamese look like theyre winning, as you said. So what went around the thinking of nixons decision to then escalate . You want to take that one . Well, it was a very important weekend. He did it on the 8th of may. In the preceding days we had some meetings. I remember general hague calling me in on a friday afternoon. I was about to go to new york. He said you better stick around. The president has decided, its a certainty, that hes going to mine hai fong and bomb hanoi. Were going to spend the weekend here doing some staff work and then well have an nsc meeting on monday. And he asked me to write kind of a justification for doing this. And then we what was the background in mining hai fong harbor . It was the largest harbor in North Vietnam. It was the kind of escalation that we had avoided previously. I think mr. Nixon felt that he couldnt go to moscow on his summit with mr. Brezhnev while mr. Brezhnevs client was invading a friend of ours. With russian weapons. Exactly. He had to take some firm action. So we had an nsc meeting that morning and then the action was undertaken. It continued. Tell me about those five or six days then. President nixon decided we were going to bomb hanoi, mine hai fong harbor knowing that maybe the moscow summit hung in the balance. So what did kissinger talk to you . What did he say to you to get your advice . Ill pass this back to winston except to say that, yes, that saturday we had a meeting in the situation room with all of henrys closest staff. We may have different memories of peoples positions. I think most people were in favor of doing this both for military reasons to blunt the North Vietnamese offensive and they understood nixons view that you dont go to russia looking weak while your american soldiers are getting killed by russian weapons. As i recall it, you correct me with your memory, almost everybody thought this would be the end of the moscow summit, that the russians wouldnt greet nixon in moscow when hes bombing especially the ships. One of the ships got hit by accident which didnt help. People thought the summit would be either canceled or said its a good chance its going to be canceled. I distinctly remember nixon saying no, the russians have too much at stake with us bilaterally. An theyll go ahead despite this and ill look much better being strong as i go there. Whereas others felt, okay, we should do this, but were going to lose the arms control agreement, berlin agreement, all the other things we worked out particularly with the russians. I remember going in a helicopter with henry up to camp david to help write the speech an announcing hanoi and hai fong. This was a couple days in early may. Henry and i were depressed on the aircraft, not that we were against what was going to happen, but all the work on the russian front was going to go down the tube. Nixon was right. We were wrong. We went ahead with the summit. We ought to let john we have slightly different recollections of the saturday meeting. I felt there were more opinions expressed to the effect that the summit is not likely to be canceled including from helmet seinfeld who was the european director and John Holdridge who was the asia man. Be that as it may, i also attended the nsc meeting on monday and i recall henry saying that he thought there was a 50 50 chance. So kissinger the small inner circle took you into the white house situation room and said this is what the president s decided, what do you think . Yeah, basically. What do you think is going to happen . He also consuled us consulted us before the president. Nixon never wavered. This is an interesting point. This is a very courageous decision. He was willing to risk the moscow summit. In his mind he wasnt risking it much. People go back and say was it kissinger, was it nixon . The golden this was nixon supported by kissinger. Its very hard sometimes to distinguish the two. I want to add one thing on china. When kissinger went to china on the secret trip, he took me with him which rather surprised me because i wasnt working on china, wynn was. The interesting thing about it to me was at a certain point we began talking about vietnam, and he mentioned a number of key points. Afterwards kissinger asked me, is there anything in his key points which deviates in a substantial way from what the vietnamese are saying . I said no, he is taking exactly the same line. To me that meant that we could not count on the chinese to pull our irons out of the fire on vietnam. I think that was a key point. Well, they wouldnt pull irons out of the fire. A little more nuance. First of all, joe and i have to send his transcript to annoy. Thats right. Secondly, i do think and it was shown that they werent going to pull our irons out of the fire. To the extent, as i said earlier, they could get us out of vietnam and away from their borders in a way that wouldnt undercut our world credibility and balancing of the soviet union, it was worth it for the i think they did argue to hanoi, dont make them overthrow, settle for a military settlement. Youll get your prize in the long run. That was an important modification. So lets flash forward. That was talking about vietnam with the chinese a year before. But then when you went to moscow, did you also talk yeah. So nixon was right. Moscow was a very different kettle of fish. Nixon called the bluff. The trip was on. The russians, the soviet union did not object. Now youre in moscow. We had one seminal meeting on vietnam with brezhnev, costigan, aleksandrov, their National Security adviser and their interpreter. It was the president , it was henry and it was winston and myself. We had a nice long fourhour thing where they basically vented about vietnam. I think the longer they spoke, the clearer it was its again this question of sending the transcript to hanoi. They were doing this for the record in hanoi. And bob winston may want to talk a bit about the one detail. One of the worst moments of my life up till then was the fact that he and lloyd missed the president ial mode tore cade. This meeting was clearly going to be on vietnam. It was a big signing ceremony i think for a space agreement, i dont know what it was. We were with the briefing books for the meeting for nixon and kissinger in the office. The motorcade was supposed to go a half hour later. Brezhnev says to henry, lets go out to both of them, lets go out early. So the motorcade takes off and were left behind with the briefing books. Henry is a great guy, but he can get a little upset when things dont go well. Not having the briefing books and nixon not having his briefing books and his missing the motorcade, even though that was totally not our fault, but thats totally irrelevant. We were agonizing, we went to the kgb and said, please let us go out. They said no, you cant go out. We were an hour and a half behind brezhnev and nixon. And as be went out, we were contemplating suicide. I dont know about you. So we get out there. Luckily brezhnev took nixon out on a boat. So we didnt his anything. Then we had a meeting and it was a vicious meeting. Nixon stood there, didnt try to debate. By the way, this is important, the fact the russians had nixon where we were bombing hanoi and mining hai fong, it was quite useful. But after this meeting, very vicious atmosphere, we go upstairs, the entire mood changes. They break out the vodka and sit around and get semi drunk and have a great time. At the end of that, nixon leaves. Kissinger leaves. Kissinger goes off and negotiates the salt agreement later that night. I dont think he was drunk. Henry used to say the trouble with my staff is that theyre all incompetent. That was example number one. Let history note that in the audience are several key members of Henry Kissingers staff. They were chuckling when they talked about contemplating suicide because Henry Kissinger would have been disappointed at their foolish actions. They were very mag nam mouse. Plus they didnt need briefing books because it was a total fourhour lecture by the other side. Weve gotten through the salt negotiations, arms control agreements, opening to china. The vietnam war is still raging. College campuses are on fire. Smyser is at harvard incognito and not letting anyone know who you worked for. Then october 1972, breakthrough. Well, we got the North Vietnameses attention with hai fong and hanoi, blunting their offensive. As youll see in a later episode, when you talk with hanoi, you get their attention. When youre nice to them, you dont get their attention, unfortunately. So september we resumed late september talks. We began with to get a few inning links that they might be more flexible. Nothing definitive but the tone was totally different because you just bombed the hell out of them. Plus we had this very forthcoming proposal still on the table. To make a long story short, the breakthrough came on october 8, 1972. And why did it come . The breakthrough being the following. We go to another secret talk and they present a proposal, elaborating on the points with their own proposal. For the first time in the history of the negotiations they have to drop their political conditions. People have to remember up until then, even in 1969 if we said give us our prisoners back and well get out, it wouldnt work. They would insist on over throwing thieu. Madam bin had a public proposal at some time during this, eight points which said unilateral u. S. Withdrawal, and then overthrow thieu not those words, and once youve done those two things well begin to discuss prisoners. That was their position. So anyway in october what happened. U. S. President ial election happen. George mcgovern was the opponent to nixon. He basically was willing to give to the vietnamese everything they wanted. As long as they thought mcgovern might win, they were going to wait. Thats why they petered out the negotiations. They were going to wait to see if he could give them what they wanted without this mad man. When they saw by october that nixon was going to win and probably in a landslide, oh, my god, were going to have this mad man in office four more years. He doesnt have to worry about getting reelected. He just bombed the hell out of us. We better make a deal now. Thats what turned the tide. Secondly, wrongly, they thought nixon would be eager, even though hes going to win anyway, eager to have a Peace Agreement before the election if he possibly could, therefore, he might be more flexible. Nixon was just the opposite. He was damned if he would have any agreement that looked like a sellout just to get reelected. He was a man of principle and he wasnt going to do it and he didnt need it for the election. Although the october date is kind of an interesting coincidence compared to the experience four years before. I mean, one of the things ive learned from the vietnam negotiations is, if you can at all avoid it, dont negotiate something critical to United States National Security one month before a president ial election. Thats right. And so critics could say we rushed it, and john may want to comment on that as we get further on. In any event, we spent three days, exhausting days, fleshing out our counterproposal. I remember one night, john, we were staying, i guess, at the embassy. I dont know where we were at that point because this was public now. Henry said take their proposal and redo it. John and i stayed up until 3 00 a. M. , did the proposal. Henry woke us up he was generous that night, didnt wake us until about 7 00 a. M. , i think. He said it was too tough. I think thats probably negropontes fault. Anyway, we redid it, had three or four more exhausting days. We finally settled on the basics of the agreement, some details, and henry was asked to go to hanoi to complete it. He was contemplating that. Meanwhile we were keeping nixon and president thieu informed but rounding off some of the edges not to scare anybody and lock us in. So we went back with the agreement. I stayed behind for a day with our translator and negotiated with the vietnamese on a lot of details. We made about 65, 70 technical changes. Im not pretending i was a major negotiator. But it was still harrowing. I thought we had succeeded and i went to bed, was woken up by the hague saying you have to go back and get more point. You have to remember the emotions of this time. I went into the restroom on the plane and sat down and cried, both out of exhaustion and out of joy that we were going to end this damn thing. Yeah, i remember. But then we got back to washington and we decided we better go tell mr. Thieu what this agreement is all about. Ill let john pick it up from there. Then we went to saigon, i think it was about the 17th of october, and the scenario that henry had in mind was wed go to saigon for a couple of days and then we would go to hanoi, initial the agreement and the ceasefire would go into effect i think on the 2nd of november, Something Like that, so just several days before the elections. But when we got to saigon unfortunately we didnt even have yet a fully completed vietnamese text. But thieu reacted i was not at the meeting, maybe you were. Ill interrupt you for your sake. On the way out there we had discussions on the plane about how thieu was going to react. Henry and i, partly analysis, partly wishful thinking, thought he would not like the agreement but he would accept it because we got rid of the political conditioning. Hed still be in office. In fact, the year before, we had to elaborate one of the proposals by saying were willing to have negotiations six months after the agreement and that thieu would resign a month before the elections, but we leave the implication he would still run in the election. He was willing then, a year earlier, to say, no, i wont even run in the election. We said no, thats going too far. For that reason we thought he might buy this agreement. Plus, as i say, there were many other reassurances of continuing aid and everything else. John was much more prescient. He predicted a real blowup in saigon. You think you got a deal after a decade of the vietnam war, and then you go to South Vietnam. Theres not much more to the story. What happens is thieu says he wont do it. Then the North Vietnamese reveal the fact and henry then cancels his trip to hanoi to carry out this scenario. Arnaud de borchgrave at that time writes a story headline in newsweek magazine, a deal with hanoi, a duel with thieu. And president nixon, faced with this situation decides, and i think very correctly, that he couldnt go ahead and forge ahead and sign this agreement in october of 72. It would look like we were really, in a very ungracious way, just dumping an ann ally that we fought side by side with for all these years. We decided to go back to washington. And henry had a press conference on the 26th of october First Press Conference he ever gave. If memory serves, and said, peace is at hand, which was misinterpreted by many of the critics as henry trying to convince the American People that you know to try to deceive them somehow whereas what he was really trying to do was send a message reassuring hanoi particularly in my view and a message to saigon, also, to say okay, weve had this hiccup, but well be back to sort this out after the election. Then you have nixon reelected. You dont have a deal. Then what does nixon do . We go back with more talks in november in paris which got nowhere. Not only did North Vietnamese not make the changes. When it blew up with hanoi, we said we cant do the deal unless South Vietnam is on board. If theyre not, we need to make a few changes. But as john said, we kept reassuring them that the basic agreement is in place. Were telling thieu well try to get some of your changes but dont expect too much. Were going to stick with this. We go back, nothing happens in november. So that gets us to although all along, just to interrupt, all along weve now decided to really ramp up the supply of the South Vietnamese army to bolster their sense of security for any future agreement we might go into. Thats right. We were telling thieu we would back him up. Anyway, well get into that. Nixon decides, once again, the only way to get their attention is militarily. Had the famous christmas bombing, really took place around christmastime since the talks go nowhere. The fact is, you could argue its not a nice thing to do. The fact is within two days the North Vietnamese sent a conciliatory note saying they wanted to talk again, so we got their attention. Furthermore, we did limit civilian casualties. Theres Horror Stories about these civilian casualties. Im sure theres, quote, collateral damage, but we did our best to minimize it. When we went to hanoi a couple days later, we could see that in the Populated Areas theres no damage. The craters were out in areas not near the population. So in any event, that got their attention. We went back to negotiations. They did make some changes, not enough for thieus sake, but we got the deal. Two days after the christmas bombing you got the deal. We have a picture of the initialing ceremony that took place at that point, january 23rd, 1972. But why tonight but why adopt you you want to add something . Well this is the initialing ceremony. Where is this taking place . This is in paris. In paris. Do you want to talk us through and theres the International Conference center where theres a picture later on of them coming out onto the streets. Its on avenue clebert of paris, france. Can you go back to the previous picture, ill explain who is there. On the lefthand side ambassador sullivan negotiating with the they were negotiating protocols in indochina generally, prisoners and supervision. You have sullivan, kissinger, aldridge, then myself and then a dalla looking John Negroponte who was less happy with the agreement than i was. Our translator. Opposite from henry is lake october, the right hair, to his right is juan twee. If it was just juan twee, he was a functionary and vice minister of foreign after first, we knew it wouldnt be. So thats whos on the other side along with the foreign minister. In that conversation i recall one thing that he asked lay da toe which i thought was quite revealing, he said do you decide these issues in the politburo by consensus or by vote . I was sure he was going to say by consensus, because thats sort of the way the communists work, at least thats my perception. He said no, by vote which i thought was pretty interesting. I think they had actually genuinely been divided in the weeks preceding about whether or not to go forward with the agreement because they felt they had been double crossed by us bailing out on the original scenario and then resupplying saigon with all this equipment. There might have been some dissension in the politburo about whether to go forward or not which is why he then just before christmas said he had to go back. I think the reason he introduced so many he introduced a whole bunch of changes, nine or ten changes in the agreement just before we finished the November December talks. I think it was to buy himself time to go back for consultations. I dont think he realized he was going to also buy the christmas bombing. The deal is signed january 1973. What happens next . Next is kissinger goes to hanoi and we went with him. I was not. I declined to go. Well, i was with him for several purposes. One, to try to urge implementation by hanoi of the agreement and to both threaten and reassure them about implementation. Secondly, very importantly, to get as much information on prisoners of war as we could. Very important. This is crucial nixon and kissinger for the prisoner situation. We insisted they had to all come back while we were still in the country. The agreement phased over two month, incremental u. S. Withdrawals and return of prisoners. We got them all back on schedule. They did live up to that. The problem is the list they gave us of prisoners they were returning was shorter than we thought it should have been and very weak on laos and cambodia prisoners. We even brought photos of those we thought should have been in the prison camps but hadnt returned. It was a very unproductive trip, unfortunately foreshadowing what was coming. The question remain for many years did they hold prisoners back . My view is they were certainly brutal enough to do that but they didnt do it. If you hold them back and you dont tell anybody youve got them, theres no leverage. If they tell the world they reneged and held the people back, then, of course, world outrage. My guess is that those who we thought should have been on the list probably died in captivity under torture or starvation or whatever it was and they didnt want to reveal that fact. I think we got everyone back who they actually had at that point. The prisoners are back, the deal is signed. Youre all relieved well actually ended the vietnam war and done it with honor and integrity and decency, and then it all falls apart. To be honest, i think john was less relieved than i was. When the deal was done i did not like the deal, and i foresaw in that agreement the seeds of what happened next. I think in honesty, it was a withdrawal agreement. Diplomacy sometimes you use euphemistic terms for what it is youve done. If you look at the agreement, its called the agreement to restore peace, to end the war and restore peace in vietnam. It wasnt really that. It turned out essentially to be a withdrawal agreement. The interval ended up not being as decent as we would have liked it to be. Then, of course, theres all kind of discussion afterwards, did it unravel because of the agreement, or did it unravel because the presidency was so weakened in those subsequent years that it deprived president nixon of his ability to react and respond in a forceful way. We can debate the whatifs forever. Let me explain what nixon and kissingers view were which i shared. First we felt we had for ten years sacrificed blood and money on behalf of South Vietnam. So we have done so much to help, and we tried to prepare them with vietnamization. We paid our price. Secondly, we thought it was the best deal we would get, better than what most people were saying coalition government, get rid of thieu and so on. We avoided that saying wed give at least a chance for him to survive. There were four reasons we thought the agreement would hold up beyond thinking we were out of time. It had gone on long enough. Number one, if there were were not naive. We didnt trust hanoi. If they nibbled at the agreement and had ceasefire violations, we felt that the South Vietnamese with our supplies would be able to handle that, that they had gotten to the point they can handled low level violations. Number two, if there was massive infiltration and invasion which did happen, we thought the American People certainly we didnt want and they didnt want us to go back in on the ground, but to uphold an agreement after all these sacrifices and credibilities of world power, at least resume our bombing to stop them from invading. We thought the military situation could be manageable. Thirdly, there was an aid program. They wanted to call it reparations, we called it reconstruction. We had aid programs for laos, cambodia and South Vietnam as well as hanoi. That was the incentive, the carrot to hanoi, 2. 5 billion. If they implement the agreement, they get all this aid for reconstruction. Fourthly, we thought the chinese and the russians would weigh in on implementation, not wanting to humiliate us and having their own stakes in the bilateral relationship. Each of those assumptions didnt really pan out. The South Vietnamese were not as capable as we hoped. In all fairness, the congress to its eternal shame cut off economic and military aid, or at least military aid to the South Vietnamese. The practical and the psychological impact on our allies of trying to fight off a North Vietnamese invasion when we wouldnt give them military aid. Were not talking boots on the ground or air power. Of course we couldnt do air power. When did congress cut off aid . More and more incremental about cutting off bombing and aid. This was 1973. Started in 73 and 4, it kept on going. The archives would have the details. I must say kissingers book, this is the most comprehensive account obviously from his perspective and a lot more. Those interested this came out in 2003 called ending the vietnam war. That, too, is a euphemism if you pardon the interruption. It ended our involvement. Thats the more accurate at the same time. Were leave our program at this point. See it in its entirety by going to the cspan video library. Go to cspan. Org. Tonight on American History tv, american artifacts. At 8 00 eastern, senator alexander talks about his walk across tennessee. Then a demonstration of the reconstructed traveling blacksmith forge built from an 1860s design from the National Archiv archives. At 9 00, a look at the museum of the American Revolution scheduled to open in philadelphia in 2017. And at 9 30, a look at civil war medical history with historic items from the museum of health and medicine. American artifacts at 8 00 eastern, part of a week of American History tv in primetime on cspan3. Today on cspan3, a focus on journalism. Between 1 00 p. M. And 8 00 p. M. , well show you a discussion with white house correspondents and the role of editorial cartoonists. Thats followed by two interviews on the history of the Gridiron Club dinner in washington, the annual event where journalists, politicians, and the president mingle behind closed doors. Good morning, everyone, on this wednesday, august 26th. Lawmakers return to washington in a couple weeks, and what to do about the president S Health Care law is on the agenda. Full repeal or smaller changes . Meanwhile, the gop president ial candidates are laying out their plans to replace socalled obamacare. So we turn to all of you this morning to get your ideas on reforming health care. Heres how were going to divide the lines. If you get insurance through the Affordable Care act, dial in at 2027488000. If you get your insurance through your employer, you can dial in at 2027488001. Private insurance, the line for you is 2027488002. All others, 2027488003. You can also send us a twe tweet cspanwj or join the conversation on facebook. Com cspan or send us an email. Good morning. Well get to your thoughts here in just a minute. First, let me show you the National Journal headline. House republicans really think they can amend obamacare this fall. Health care legislative package is tentatively expected to move in the coming months. Inside the story by dylan scott, they report that while congressional leaders continue to debate whether to pursue near full repeal of the Affordable Care act through budget reconciliation and gop president ial candidates lay out obama replacement proposals, House Republicans are looking at a smaller batch of changes to the Health Care Law they think can make it to the president s desk. House ways and Means Health Subcommittee chairman kevin brady told the National Journal they could mark up Health Care Tax legislation later this year. He floated bills to related to over the counter drugs, Health Savings accounts, and perhaps most ambitiously, a repeal of obamacares unpopular cadillac tax on highend insurance plans. It goes on to say the Health Care Agenda will be determined in part by Capitol Hills other business. Law mamakers have a full plate n they return from the august recess. It goes on to say that other sources on and off the hill said theyre anticipating some kind of Health Care Package to get a look in the fall. A spokesman for the ways and means chairman paul ryan said in an email, a markup is possible, but were not ready to announce anything yet and especially dont have a list of specific bills at this point. But they are eyeing legislation, could be small changes. Whats your take on this . Tell washington what you think. What changes should be made to the Health Care System . Thats our question for all of you this morning. As the National Journal mentioned, the gop president ial candidates are laying out what they would do if they became president. Just last week scott walker in minneapolis described aspects of hiS Health Care plan. Take a listen. In addition to that, you also see up there besides the credits and the incentives and lowering that well see in premiums out there, we allow people to buy Health Insurance anywhere, in any state out there. In the past, youve been restricted over state lines. We allow you to buy it anywhere, anywhere you think is best spot. Employers can do that as well. We allow you to buy it anywhere, in any state. Finally, we make sure this is really important because while were repealing obamacare entirely, we want to make sure one of the concerns ive heard across this country, certainly heard in my state, is we want to make sure people who have preexisting conditions, that youre not going to get bumped off your coverage, youre not going to have to face huge increases just because of a preexisting condition or just because you get sick. Thats something we do under this plan to make sure that you as americans are taken care of. Governor scott walker laying out what he would do if he became president on health care. The other republican candidates have put out their proposals as well. So what do you think . What changes should be made to health care . Evelyn is in chicago, gets her insurance through the Affordable Care act. Good morning to you. What changes would you make . Caller good morning, beautiful greta. What changes . I dont want any changes. It will be interesting what they come up with. I have the cigna health care. I was given two choices. That or Illinois State because ive been with the university of chicago since 1953 and i didnt want to leave that. So far i am very, very pleased, greta. Okay. What are you pleased about . What makes sense to you . Caller everything that im involved in do you want me okay, they thought i had diabetes. They still think that, but i beat it myself. Thats one thing. Im highly involved there with medical issues. Im doing very, very well. What about the cost caller what changes would i see . For me, nothing at this time. What about the cost for you, evelyn . How much was it before you got your insurance through the Affordable Care act . Caller i was on medicare and Social Security. Okay. So youre on medicare and Social Security. Emanuel in maryland also gets insurance through the Affordable Care act. Good morning. Caller good morning. What changes would you make, if any . Caller the changes um, the only change i can think is making the whole thing more transparent and more accessible to people who want to sign up for it. Okay. And what issues did you have with transparency and ease of signing up . Caller the only issue i had was when i looked at just how to sign up and all through the options. There were hundreds of different options. I had to really sit down and kind of crunch the numbers, and it was kind of hard to, you know, flip through the pages and see all the different Strings Attached to each plan. It was like, how much do i have to pay for the, you know, copays and how much do i pay for prescriptions. I mean, i could see how for a lot of people how that could be really confusing. Right. How about the cost for you . How much is it costing you . Caller i, myself i mean, im living in poverty. I make less than 10,000 a year. So its basically free for me except for a small copay for doctors. Okay. What were you doing before for insurance . Caller before, i was well, im a young man, so i was on my parentS Health Care as long as i could be. Okay. All right. That was emanuel. Gets his insurance through the socalled obamacare. Were getting your take on ideas to help change health care. We showed you what scott walker had to say last week in minneapolis for his proposals. He has a pdf laying out what he would want to do if youre interested in taking a look at that. This is what the week put on their website. What scott walker and marco rubio dont want you to know about their Health Care Plans. Paul wald mman writes this piec. He says this, that scott walker and marco rubio are serious, theyve laid out their plans. They contain some things that are perfectly fine, like wellness programs, a bunch of terrible zombie rightwing ideas like limiting peoples ability to sue for medical practice and things that have been proven to fail, like highrisk pools for people with preexisting conditions. More than anything else, theyre hampered by their refusal to deal with the world as it is right now. And the republican fantasy world, the rate of uninsured hasnt fallen dramatically. It has. The cost of the aca is outrageous. It is projected to cost far less than originally thought. Everyone who got insurance through an exchange hates their coverage. Those people are actually more likely to be satisfied than people with employerbased plans. The aca caused premiums and Health Care Spending to skyrocket. Just the opposite, paul waldman says, has occurred on both counts. And the law ground job creation to a halt. Paul waldman says, no, job creation has been excellent since the Health Care Plan took effect. There are no democrats who would deny that the aca can be improved. Your thoughts on this. Sandy in spring hill, florida. Youre getting your insurance through the aca. What do you think . What changes would you make, if any . Caller i was getting my insurance through the aca for 2014. I got a subsidy for 6,000. Plus i had to pay 138 to an Insurance Company plus the subsidy, plus i had a 6,000 copay that i had to pay like 25 on each of my prescriptions. The only good thing about it was i had preexisting condition, so i didnt have trouble finding a doctor. But what they didnt tell me when i got the aca and the subsidy was even though i paid the Insurance Company 138 a month towards it, at the end of the tax year, i had to claim what of that aca subsidy i didnt use, which was 5700 out of the 6,000. So it made our taxes run us up into a higher bracket, which ended up taking all of my husbands Social Security back because of the rate of having to pay that 5700. And its the first time in 20 years ive ever had to pay income tax. So i dont understand why the Insurance Company got to keep that 4700, even though i was paying 138 a month. But it was added to my money. So why didnt i get that money back instead of the Insurance Company getting it back . And have you looked into this . Have you called one of the help centers . Caller oh, yeah. Ive called them and asked them. They said, well, that was how the aca worked, and the money went to the Insurance Company. I was responsible for the amount that i didnt use. So you say youre no longer caller no, i dropped it the first of the year, as soon as i could drop it. Now im paying cash out of my pocket. Thank god ill turn 65 in october, and i wont have to worry about it. Okay. All right. William in mississippi. William, you get your insurance through your employer. What changes would you make to the Health Care System . Caller well, as i stated to the lady who answered the phone for me this morning, im an employer who provides insurance for their employees. Before the Affordable Care act, our insurance was roughly 2500 a month for six employees. Now its over 5,000. And im with blue cross blue shield. I get no answers why. Were going to drop it because we cant afford it any longer. So you wont have to you were trying to provide that as a benefit to your six employees. Now youre going to have to say, im sorry, i cant do that . Caller thats exactly right. Where caller because its doubled in price. What do you think your employees will do . Caller im sure theyll sign up for the Affordable Care act. Thats what the whole im sure behind the scene, thats what it was designed to do, force more people to get on it to help pay for those who cant do anything with it. So thats all i have to say. Thank you. All right. A. J. In russellville, alabama. Private insurance, a. J. What changes would you make . Caller actually, i would make a change to the way that were billed for services in the medical field. Of all the fields there is insurancewise, automobile, life insurance, all your other insurances pay based on the actual cost. Health insurance is the only one that is really paying ten cents on the dollar on average. So basically how you pay determines how much you pay. Thats the problem. If you went to a hospital and you have no insurance, youre going to pay 100 . If you go in there with insurance, youre paying ten cents on the dollar. Thats the problem, the way we pay determines how much we pay, and youre gouging the uninsured. I had premiums that were for just myself and my wife and my children at about 500 a month. As soon as obamacare kicked in, my premiums doubled. My copays and outofpocket doubled. Its just the biggest scam there is out there. This is just its being worked from the wrong end. Youve got to work this from the source, which is the cost. If everybody was charged the same amount for services or you couldnt charge the uninsured more than the insured, then it would bring the premiums down. Its not a matter of how much youre paying in premium. Its how much youre paying for your services. But a. J. , wasnt that structure in place before obamacare . Caller i dont know to be honest with you, i was happy to see something going on with Health Insurance because i always felt that we were paying too much to begin with. When i heard something that was going to happen with Health Insurance, i was excited about it at first. But really, from what i understand, the whole obamacare plan did not go into effect. They only put part of it into effect because im assuming big business and the companies that were going to be forced to buy Health Insurance, they were given a break. They say, hey, you know what, were going to delay that part of obamacare until later. The only part that really kicked in was the part that affected the people that needed the most help, which was the people buying it on the open market. Most people have Health Insurance through their job, government jobs. The ones that are not making a lot of money or your lowerend incomes, theyre getting it for free. So basically, the ones in the middle who are having to buy it themselves have always been the ones paying the most, and they were the ones that got hit the worst by this obamacare. What do you mean, though, worse . You heard from callers that say their costs went down. Before, they didnt have insurance. Now they do. Or some people say, yeah, im paying more, but im willing to pay more in case something catastrophic happens. Now i know im covered kor can o to the doctor now. Caller if youve got somebody whos making about 10,000 or 15,000 a year, theyre getting Health Insurance now, which they werent getting before if they were in that poverty level. Now theyre getting Health Insurance, and theyre getting it very affordable, almost for nothing. Theyre getting food stamps. Theyre getting section eight housing. A person making 15,000 a year actually makes the equivalent of 50,000 a year by the time you add all the benefits, earned income credits. Where do you get that figure . In case others are interested. Caller i get those figured first hand from people that i know that are making about 15,000 a year. I see theyre getting their income tax returns, theyre getting 5,000 to 6,000 in free money. I see them when theyre getting their food stamps, 700, 800 a month and their grocery carts are full at the line. Let me ask you this. What do you want republicans to do . Full repeal or small changes . Caller what i would like to see is that when you go to a doctors office, whether youre paying cash, credit, Health Insurance, however youre paying, i would like to see that everybody gets charged equally and fairly. I dont care if youre paying with Health Insurance. Your Health Insurance company is charging you an astronomical amount of premium, but theyre only on the hook for ten cents on the dollar, but youre on the hook for 100 . Ive never seen that. My car insurance, if i have okay, a. J. We got that point. Im going to move on to some other voices. Before i do that, its not just republicans who are talking about health care on the campaign trail. Here is former secretary of state Hillary Clinton talking about the issue in New Hampshire this month. I mean, we have to get smart about how we spend our hardearned money so that we actually get the best results. So thank you for your service and thank you for raising that issue because i hear about it across the country. People are very concerned about the lack of health care continuity. Now that weve got the Affordable Care act and more kids are eligible for treatment [ applause ] we at least have a funding stream to take care of problems that are identified. Oftentimes now the issue is how do we get them identified . You know, whos going to be on that front line . A child spends, you know, seven, eight hours a day in school. Thats a great place to identify those problems and then to refer them and treat the ones that can be treated inexpensively and in the school site. Hillary clinton in New Hampshire talking about this issue of health care. Were asking all of you to weigh in. What changes would you make to health care . Tom in dayton beach, florida. You get your insurance through obamacare. Good morning. Youre on the air. Caller hello. Good morning. Yes, are you there . Were listening, tom. Caller okay. You know, here where i live in daytona, theres a lot of people. Tourists come from canada, from germany. When i talk to them, i make sure i talk to them because i ask them, you know, how is your health care, how you pay and how much does it cost you . They all basically say were a bunch of idiots. Theyre paying less than 1,000 out of their pocket per year for a family plan, and i ask them, how long do you have to wait to go to the doctor and all this because we hear, you know, about long wait times. To be honest with you, they tell me if you have something thats an emergency, its taken care of. You dont lay around and wait with a broke leg or Something Like that. If you have procedures that need to be done, its just like here. You go to the doctor and you need an mri or you need this or you need that, you have to wait. You dont get it done that day. You might way two, three weeks, a month. I think we need single payer here. I think we need to get completely away from the Insurance Companies, do a singlepayer plan. You pay, you know, through your employer into a fund, something similar to Social Security where everyones going to be covered. Youre going to get the Insurance Companies out of the business because they will still be in business. Theyll still have car insurance. Theyll still have homeowners insurance. There will be insurance. Okay. That was tom in dayton beach, florida. Were going to keep getting your thoughts on this. In other news this morning, many of you probably have heard about the Iowa Press Conference by donald trump yesterday where he kicked out the univisions correspondent jorge ramos. Mr. Ramos was allowed to later return to the news conference. The two of them went back and forth. But take a look at what happened in iowa yesterday. Whos next . Yeah, please. Excuse me, sit down. You werent called. Sit down. Sit down. Go ahead. I have the right to ask a question. No, you dont. You havent been called. Go back to univision. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Sit down, please. You werent called. I have the right to ask a question. Yes, go ahead. In dubuque, iowa, yesterday. As i said, mr. Ramos was allowed to return. The two of them went back and forth about immigration policy. Take a look at this from gallup. U. S. Hispanics are still getting to know most of the republican contenders. At this point, less than half of formed an opinion on any candidate except donald trump and jeb bush, partly because of this. Hispanic views of most gop views range from mildly positive to mildly negative. The sole exception is trump. And then theres this from the Financial Times this morning. Trump troubles party on immigration. What trump is saying on immigration is troubling some in the parties, and they say this, because the republicans need the hispanic vote to win in 2016. While mr. Trump is throwing red meat to the conservative base, such as the predominantly white republicans in the first voting state of iowa, the danger for the republicans is that latinos now compromise 17 of the u. S. Population compared with 6. 5 three decades ago. They also account for 11 of the electorate. 1 million young latinos are entering the electorate each year. That from the Financial Times. Well talk more about this coming up with bill crystal here on the washington journal. Well get his take on the politics and 2016 candidates. Theres also this in the headlines, that donald trump once again going after fox news anchor megyn kelly. Usa today with their headline, fox news fires back at trump over kelly. Take a look at the headline there. Then the tweets from donald trump yesterday. I liked the kelly file, he said, much better without megyn kelly. She was on vacation. Perhaps she could take another 11day unscheduled vacation. Then he retweeted this tweet from one of his supporters. The bimbo back in town, i hope not for long. Roger ales had enough. He put out a statement saying, i could not be more proud of megyn for her professionalism and class in the face of mr. Trumps verbal assaults. So that from the papers this morning. Back to our question for all of you and getting your ideas on ways to reform the Health Care System. Debra is in meridian, mississippi. Caller good morning. I got a letter from my Insurance Company yesterday. Your plan benefits will not change if you increase your deductible. So now i was at a 5,000 deductible. If i increase my deductible to 7,500, i get a certain price. If i increase it to 10,000, i get another price. It keeps going up, and i really do blame obamacare for it. And honestly, i drive an old ford. I dont have i have a 9 a month telephone bill. And look, i cant afford it. I have to join the ranks of the takers, and i dont want to be a taker. We come a long line of hard workers in our home and our family and our traditions of hard work. We dont take handouts. But obama is forcing me to take obamacare for Health Insurance. Im fixing to have to go to the government and see what they can do. Im sure i qualify. Im sure ive qualified since the very beginning. But i didnt want to go get obamacare. I am a proud american. I dont want a handout. But look, theyre forcing me to. Ive increased my deductible two or three times just so i can afford it. And now what use is a 10,000 deductible . What use is that . Okay. All right, debra. Randy in chicago heights, illinois. Randy, get your insurance through the aca . Caller yes. Greta, i was working in 2008 when it hit and my Company Closed their doors. They gave us a choice after that of one month insurance. That was it. They left us on our own. I tried to do the right thing and pay for insurance. I found a cheap hmo, but after one year, my premiums went up to like 600. I went through my savings. I went through my i. R. A. I almost went bankrupt, so i had no choice to just go that route and everything like that. But you know what, i wouldnt change a thing. Just like that woman said, she had to go to it. You know what . It did help millions of people get some kind of health care that when you go to your doctor or go to a hospital, its not going to make you bankrupt, which i almost did already by trying to do the right thing and keep some kind of private insurance. But the premiums are and like the senator from wisconsin, you know, he said you could go anywhere and get it. But hes not saying that when you go do somewhere and try to get it, hes not saying what the premiums theyre offering you. When youre 55 and older, theyre extremely expensive. You cant afford it. Randy, youre talking about what Governor Scott walker from wisconsin had to say. We showed you that earlier. He was in minneapolis last week and talked about hiS Health Care plan. Here is senator marco rubio, republican of florida. He was in iowa tuesday. He summed up what he would want to do on health care. And we have to repeal and replace a Health Care Law. We have to repeal it, and we have to replace it with something that gives every american the opportunity to acquire the Health Insurance they want with their own pretax money from any company in america across state lines that will sell it to them. If we do these things, the American Economy will create millions of the best jobs this new century has. What are your thoughts on changes to the Health Care System . You just heard the florida senator say what he would do if he became president. Fred in maryland. What do you think . Caller yeah, for me its been a nightmare. Before obamacare, i would go to see my physician, id pay 85 for an office visit. Hed work with me on the prescription, no plan. I cant afford it. I make 19,000 a year. I mean 20,000 a year. Its been a nightmare for me and millions of americans, hardworking taxpayers. Never before in my life did i think the government would force me to buy their product. He got around it by claiming it was a tax. When the courts told him you cant do it, now they manipulated it. They worked in collusion with the Insurance Companies. The Insurance Companies are loving it. Its a cash cow for them. It needs to be repealed fully and replaced with a free market. If this company doesnt beat that price, ill go somewhere else. Just plain and simple. Its been a nightmare. And i never thought this would happen in a free america. Okay, fred. Take a look at what viewers are saying on twitter. Dave said, it has to be single payer, no questions asked. Dedi says, whatever solutions we find for Health Care Must include cost cutting, getting spending in line with other industrial countries. And then bc venice says, make medicare available to all legal citizens, making health a commodity is just plain wrong. Cynthia in watertown, connecticut. Employer insurance. Cynthia, good morning to you. What changes would you make . Caller good morning. I want to thank you for taking my call this morning. I think that it is absolutely wrong. I agree with what people are tweeting. It is wrong that we are actually assisting the Insurance Companies and making more of a profit than ever before. Actually, i believe that making a profit off of a human right such aS Health Care is really immoral, and the Insurance Companies are immoral in the way they make a profit off of people who are struggling every day to pay for insurance. Im very lucky because i was able to retire from my teaching job and retain Health Insurance at a good cost, a good price. I dont have to rely upon the programs that have been put into place. Everybody should be able to have Affordable Health care. And obamacare was something obama really worked with the republicans to try to put into place. And now the republicans are turning on the very program that they agreed to. Whats ironic, i think, is these people running for president are saying they can go to any state. Well, its the republicans who arent letting people sign up for obamacare in certain states. So really theyre talking about going across state lines, but people arent being allowed to sign up for it in republicangoverned stated. Okay, cynthia. Were talking about changes to the Health Care System. What would you make, if any . As we said, House Republicans are eyeing possibly another effort on full repeal or smaller changes to the law when they return this fall. But they also have to deal with the budget and this controversy over planned parenthood. Washington post Editorial Board weigh in this morning. The defunding fixation, and they write this. The Antiabortion Movement seems to have gained new momentum. Thousands of protesters rallied outside planned parenthood clinics over the weekend. Republicans demanding a crackdown on the organization. Several republican governorss have moved to cut off funds, including governor bobby jindal of louisiana, a state with just two planned parenthood clinics that dont even perform abortions. Energizing the fight, which threatens to complicate this falls federal budget negotiations and could lead to a government shutdown, are notorious sting videos from the socalled center for medical progress, targeting planned parenthood officials. For all the outcry the videos have caused, they reveal nothing that changes the substance of the debate over abortion. That, though, doesnt mean there wont be damage. Public time and money will be wasted and pointless efforts to investigate or defund planned parenthood and in some cases defunders are likely to run afoul of federal law in their zeal to act on what so far have been phantom accusations of wrongdoing. And then theres this in the paper this morning from the wall street journal, planned parenthood has responded in the state of louisiana, and they plan to sue. The organization and three patient coplaintiffs filed for an injunction to stop an order by the louisiana governor that would bar medicaid funds from going to planned parenthood facilities in the state beginning september 2nd. So that on that effort will continue when lawmakers return this fall. Then many of you probably watching the markets this morning. This is from the miami herald. After what happened earlier this week, the longest stretch of u. S. Losses in three years. Wall streets losing streak continued for the sixth day in a row as a Global Stock Selloff continued. Yesterday, as many of you know, beijing trying to stop the free fall, and they cut Interest Rates in a bid to revive the economy. It seemed to have worked for a short while but then in the end more turmoil is expected coming today when the markets open up. Then usa today has this headline related to the story. Online brokerages sway in the stock storm. Despite clear indications that turmoil in china would probably spill over into u. S. Markets, at least four major online brokerages had trouble handling the surge, briefly handcuffing retail investorings. The disruption serves as another reminder that the average individual stock picker is at a perpetual disadvantage in competition with powerful Institutional Investors and traders who rely on complex software algorithms. Many customers were unable to access their accounts or execute trades for a stretch during mondays morning selloff. When the dow briefly tumbled more than 1,000 points within a half an hour of the opening bell. The company had 6. 6 million accounts and 702 billion in assets as of june 30th. The papers also noting that this could this situation in china could delay an increase by the fed this fall when the Federal Reserve had initially planned to do so. One other headline for you on the front page of the Washington Times this morning. Its about the ambassador to japan, caroline kennedy. The headline is that the state watchdog pans kennedys performance as envoy to japan. Caroline kennedy, daughter of former president john f. Kennedy, is under fire for using a private email, not a private server, to conduct official business. This is according to the office of Inspector General at the state department whos monitoring whats going on in japan. Its one of the most prestigious posts for an ambassador. It says inside the Washington Times, the larger survey by the oig, which scrutinizes state Department Operations around the world, are offering an unflattering portrayal of miss kennedys tenure as ambassador, exerting she does not have experience in leading an institution the size of the u. S. Mission to japan. Back to our conversation with all of you this morning. What do you think what changes should be made to health care . Lynn in san antonio, texas. You get your insurance through your employer. Thanks for hanging on the line. Good morning. Go ahead. Caller oh, youre welcome. I just have to disagree with that lady was previously on. The republicans never agreed to this. Not one vote for this law came through republicans. They were all from democrats. But the competition across state lines would be a wonderful thing. Make all also, if you made all states allow the commercial establishments that want to have mini clinics, such as the cvs, walmart, walgreens, they want to have mini clinics where they can catch some of these things before the people get so ill for a real reasonable price. I think insurance should only carry coverage things that you need. Im 70 years old. I assure you i will not be having any more children, so i dont need a lot of services. Why should i pay for that . Okay. Caller thats a good way to figure things out. Cut costs. Start with cutting costs before you start raising prices. I dont think they should allow discounts. My doctor says he charges x fee. I get the insurance thing back, and they say they dont pay the doctor that fee. They pay the doctor x fee, and she just has to suck it up. So the poor next person who doesnt have insurance is going to have to pay the whole fee. All right, lynn. Shelly in auburn, illinois. Good morning. What changes would you make . Caller well, first of all, i am on medicare, but i have a problem with a. J. That called in earlier. He stated that anybody that is making under 11,000 is getting 50,000 a year because they get all these benefits. Well, im here to tell you im on medicare. I make 1052 a month. Out of that, i have to pay for my medicare every month. I get s. N. A. P. Benefits, and i get 16 a month. I do not get section eight housing because they did away with it in our county three years ago. So i do not get any benefits, honey, and i am poor, poor, poor. I do not get any extra benefits. So shelly what would you like to see happen with health care . Caller with health care, i think it needs to be single payer. Also, i think they need to get on the Drug Companies because they pay an enormous amount for drugs. I have prescriptions that cost 900 a month that are not covered by any of my medicare benefits that i have to pay if i want them. And i cant pay for them. Okay. So shelly, take a listen to bernie sanders, the independent from vermont, whos running for the democratic nomination. He had this to say in South Carolina about single payer. I live in burlington, vermont. Its an hour away from the canadian border. The kcanadians guarantee health care to every one of their men, women, and child. In the u. K. , they guarantee health care to all of their people. Germany does it. France does it. Scandinavia does it. Every major country on earth does it except us. And that is why i strongly believe in a medicare for all singlepayer program. I believe in singer pay per, but thats not what congress believed in. But the congress did pass and the president did sign the Affordable Care act, a modest but important step forward. By expanding eligibility for medicaid, millions of americans now have Health Insurance who previously lacked it. That is a good thing. Senator bernie sanders, single payer is what hes calling for. What changes would you make to health care . Debbie in westchester, ohio. Go ahead, debbie. Caller yes, good morning. Morning. Caller i happen to be a retired scientist and an avid reader of national geographic. In january of 2010, they published a chart comparing length of life to Health Care Costs. In the United States, we spend approximately 7,000 per person in total Health Care Costs. No other nation comes close to that. Theyre like at four. All the other countries were Something Like around 4,000. So it spurred me to Research Start researching why Health Care Costs are so expensive. What i found out was quite amazing. I divided health into three sections. The American Lung Association Reports that there is 600 billion we spend per year on smokingrelated disease. So if you divide that by the number of people who would normally be 21plus, youre looking at each american has to set aside 600 just to pay for smokingrelated disease. So i used that technique in my research, and what i found is that we spend 500 billion a year on basically five choices. They are smokingrelated disease, trauma. If you get in a car and youre driving and youre under the influence of drugs or alcohol, we spend approximately 35 billion a year in our Trauma Centers and hospitals treating that. In the United States, theres over 80,000 rapes a year. For each individual who has to suffer that type of experience, youre looking at probably 10,000 to 12,000 in total costs per rape. The numbers all come from statistics like the National Institutes of health, the cdc, the National Institutes of childrens health, the fbi website. So i took a look at everything. We have 45,000 women that are taking drugs while theyre pregnant, and our newest citizens are born addicted. I looked at that and said, my gosh, thats a total of 500 billion a year that we spend, which is approximately 1500 per adult citizen. So we cant with obamacare and any kind of insurance plan, you cant pay for that until you address behavior or you create awareness. So the way that i thought that we should do Something Like that is to create a budget for it, and each and every one of us has to contribute. We have to contribute through something similar to a payroll deduction, which is considered highrisk, highcost. Then we take that out, we take all of that out of our normal premiums. Because before you ever go to the doctor for a sore throat, youve got to set aside 1500 a year to pay for those five choices. So its like a lot of other issues we have in our society. No society can afford to pay 500 billion a year in a system which disguises that cost. We are at a point where we have to address behavior. Okay, debbie, im going to leave it there so i can get in a couple more calls. Will in indiana. Insurance through the Affordable Care act. Hi, will. Caller im from kentucky. Okay. Go ahead, will. Sorry about that. Caller thats all right. In kentucky we have connect. As far as i know, all states were able to come up with their own form of the Affordable Care act. Here in kentucky, it was wonderful. Over 3 Million People who did not have insurance now have insurance. Personally, when i signed up, i was making over 21,000 a year. I was 30 years old. I was a smoker. And that would be the most expensive form of insurance is what i had always thought and im sure what everybody else always thought. But with the subsidy, i could get it for as little as ten cents a month. So the one i chose was 10 a month. There was no copay. Prescriptions for up to 25 a month. And the payment to the doctor is only it can up to 500. So will, no changes then . Caller no, unless we go to universal health care. Okay. Regina in apollo, pennsylvania. Private insurance. Youre our last for this conversation. What are your thoughts . Caller i think will is a real good indication of why this whole thing doesnt make anybody change their behavior. He smokes, and hes getting rewarded. The whole situation is im going to support thank you, governor jindal. Thank you, rand paul. Thank you, ted cruz. They want to repeal the whole bill. I see this whole thing a lady called earlier about the Health Insurance and how she had to pay 5800 out of her Social Security. Well, thats because it was a gift to the Health Insurance companies. The total repeal of the Health Insurance mandate, because for me to pay for everybodyS Health Care needs when those Health Care Needs arent my Health Care Needs, this whole thing that hillary is saying about the schools, we have a funding stream. She sure does. She has no right to it. What are they going to muster up in the schools to get some children on ritalin and programs they dont need without parents consent . Because these people have been taking power off us for years, and i dont want to pay for anything im not going to use. Vaccinations, flu vaccinations. Why should i be i want to subsidize my own health care, and i do not want to be required to pay for everybody elses care so they can get things. Thats their choice. They want to kill babies, they can pay for this themselves under that unAffordable Health care act. Repeal the Health Insurance mandate. Go rand paul, ted cruz. Jindals doing good, scott walker. Stop making me pay Health Insurance okay. Regina with the list there of potential republican nominees in the 2016 election. Thats our topic here coming up next. Well talk with bill crystal of the Weekly Standard about the election. Later, well talk about Police Reform and efforts at the forefront of the ferguson and baltimore protest movements. Well be right back. Norns harding once said she had only one hobby and that was warren harding. She was a significant force in her husbands presidency and adept at handling the media. Despite hardships, scandals, her husbands infidelitieinfideliti death in office, as well as her own poor health, she would help define the role of the modern first lady. Florence harding, this sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspans original series, examining the public and private lives of the women who filled the position of first lady and their influence on the presidency, from Martha Washington to michelle obama. Sundays at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on American History tv on cspan3. Saturday, august 29th marks the tenth anniversary of hurricane katrina, one of the five deadliest storms in u. S. History. Tonight at 8 00, cspans 2006 tour of hurricane damage and recovery at st. Bernard parish in louisiana. You cant describe it. I mean, thats your whole life gone, completely. You got nothing but cement left. And rubble, you know. Not only your house but your whole community. All your friends, your family, everybodys gone. And now its going to be a year later and your family and friends you dont see anymore that you used to see. Hell of a feeling. You dont forget it. You know, youll never forget it the rest of your life. Followed at 9 00 with a 2005 town hall meeting in new orleans moderated by thenmayor ray nagin. Im relying on you. I know all this is state level, federal level, and all other levels. I dont have them. I voted for you to represent me on a local level. I dont know where else to go. I dont know what else to do. Thursday night starting at 8 00, more from the atlantic conference in new orleans with femas craig fugate and New York Times executive editor dean baquet and family. At 9 00, well show you president obamas trip to the region as well as remarks on the recovery effort ten years after katrina. Hurricane katrina anniversary coverage all this week on cspan. Washington journal continues. We want to welcome back to the table bill crystal. Founder and editor of Weekly Standard. Lets start with the latest trump move last night in iowa. What do you make of that interaction and what does it do for the party on immigration . Theres a good article this morning showing that so far at least latino voters are not letting it spill over to the rest of the republicans. And i think thats generally been the case. Im a little bit of a critic of the excessive critics of donald trump and the people who worry so much about him. Theres no evidence that trump is hurting the republicans. You look at the matchups in states across the country, trump is not putting republicans against clinton or biden or senators. So so far, i actually think the Trump Campaign, its been a little bit of a zoo and a circus. I dont think donald trump will or should be the nominee. Hes captured a sentiment thats real. Actually so far as i said, i think the republicans are doing better in this president ial campaign than the democrats. Where were they then and where are they now . Hillary clintons the one whos really been damaged. No big damage. You dont buy this headline then from the Financial Times, trump troubles party on immigration . Well, he troubles a lot of Party Insider and a lot of people who are more liberal on immigration, but again, i think that reflects the views of a bunch of they were all troubled in 2014. They said in 2013, if the Republican House does not pass Immigration Reform this year, republicans are doomed in 2014. They cant win states like colorado and others. And suddenly the republicans pick up nine senate seats in 2014 winning colorado by about nine points. The Financial Times says the democratics are conscious that theyre tapping into a conception that romney lost in 2012. They pointed out the party had lost the popular vote in five of the last elections. Theyre tapping into this belief that republicans are antiimmigrant. Look, you just ask a common sense question. Many of you look at trump and think hes like a representative republican. Hes just an average republican. Donald trump is donald trump. His brand is so unique that no one thinks he speaks entirely for the republicans. Is it better to be the party thats concerned about there being so many Illegal Immigrants here, thinks the border to needs to be secured, or the party basically for just total amnesty for anyone whos come here . I think its better to be the first. And weve had a lot of elections that have turned on that. Now, i dont think republicans should be antilatino. I think some of them went over the line in the last several years. Mitt romney said some stupid things. Mitt romney could have gotten 40 of the vote and still have lost the election it was not key to the election. I have no problem with being more hawkish on immigration than the republican elites would like. What about the way jeb bush talked about it on monday . I want to show our viewers what he had to say when he was along the border. I just said that i was focusing on a specific, targeted kind of case where people are organizing to bring pregnant women into the country where theyre having children for their children to become sciti n citize citizens. Thats fraud. We need to enforce the law. We need to create a more secure border. Not just at the border but across the spectrum. Enforcing the immigration laws of our country needs to be a high priority. How you do it . You put more resources how will you refer to this issue . You give me the name. This is so ridiculous. Give me the name you want me to use and ill use it. Bill crystal . I sympathize with jeb bush there. What was he supposed to say. There are some people that illegally come across the border because the current interpretation of the constitution and our laws. They currently become citizens. That triggers all kinds of protections for them and then for their relatives. Thats not something that we should just be passive about. Theyre not here legally. Why shouldnt we enforce law . Was the use of the term anchor babies a slip of the tongue or good strategy on the part of jeb bush . I think neither probably. I think its a term thats been used a lot for these babies of people who came across purposely to have the baby. Im not sure how many such people there are. Maybe some people think its an incensensitive term. Hes not referring to people born of legal immigrants. Hes referring to this particular phenomenon which is a real phenomenon. They say jeb bush went to the border down of mcallen texas on monday to raise money and talk about immigration in english and fluent spanish. Because the republican president ial campaign has been so fixated on immigration, it was a chance to see a supposed expert on this subject handled. Short version, he was awful, they say. He managed to step on his message, a growing population that is every bit as important as latinos and he failed to give latino voters any Persuasive Evidence that he had anything better to offer them. Love it when the New York Times Editorial Board gives republican president ial candidates advice or marks on how theyre doing. Does the New York Times believe that the border laws should be enforced or not . Liberals have now become so extreme on immigration. Their view i take it is any one who shows up at the border should be let across. We shouldnt even question that. As a matter of constitutional interpretation. Fine, lets have that debate. The times does not want to have a debate on immigration. You think its a political party. Its too risky to deal with immigration. They dont want to have any discussion of it. Its not going to hurt republicans to have a spectrum of views ranging from donald trump, santorum, ted cruz. These are policy questions that deserve to be debated. And i would prefer to be in the republican shoes, this is a messy debate, maybe theyll offend a few people, than the democrats in lock step on a very liberal view on this. Except ironically for bernie sanders, does realize theres a problem with having a large number of immigrants coming in. You tweeted this out on monday, that the Trump Campaign has learned a lot and i dont mean this in a disparaging way, from Pro Wrestling. Then there was this tweet from donald trump, im going to make America Great again. Im not sure what hes thanking you for. I was im glad that donald trump i guess is thanking me. Someone called that to my attention last night. I guess maybe it was the pro the Pro Wrestling thing, we were sitting around the office talking. There was that clip of trump in the joining of Pro Wrestling match, sort of. Showing up at a Pro Wrestling exhibition and being part of the show. Hes loved something from the publics love from Pro Wrestling, the over the top rhetoric, the show boating. I dont think ultimately, we want a president who does that. Is he entertaining for now . Do people like going to see him talk . They went. Theyre not really antitrump. It was a fun friday night. He was interesting and entertaining. Doesnt mean that when it comes to february or march theyre going to vote for donald trump. So im sticking to my thesis. I was a little ahead on this and theyre going to be wrong. I dont think hes going to keep going up. I think he stabilized. The people thought hes just going to disappear. Theres a moment hell Say Something and everyone will jump on him. Thats stupid. Thats not how things work. Thinking the media is so powerful that if they criticize him, every supporter is going to flee. Thats not how it works. I dont think he has much upside beyond that. I could be wrong. Trump could be a once in a 50year phenomena of someone who manages to pull this off. The rhetoric is not something people ultimately want from a president. I dont know if he was thanking me for the Pro Wrestling comparison. Donald trump is very selfaware. We the political consultant class, weve been through this for decades and hes this babe in the woods. That is so stupid. Donald trump has been on tv god knows how many years. Donald trump runs a lot of businesses that depend on a lot of good pr that appeal to customers and consumers. Its not like donald trump has
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